TRANSPORT

High-Speed Rail

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent assessment he has made of progress on the development of a North-South high-speed rail link.

Sadiq Khan: The Department for Transport is continuing its assessment of the detailed report from High Speed Two which was received at the end of last year. If the Government decide to pursue proposals for high speed rail, we will publish a White Paper setting out plans by the end of March 2010.

Rail Fares

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what the average change has been in the level of regulated rail fares since 1997.

Chris Mole: Figures derived from the Office of Rail Regulation's National Rail Trends show that, between January 1997 and January 2009, regulated fares rose by 5.1 per cent. in real terms. The figures for 2010 have not yet been published.

Speed Cameras

Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what proposals he has to install further speed cameras on the motorway network.

Paul Clark: Speed cameras are used on the motorway network to improve the safety of the travelling public and road workers.
	The Highways Agency are planning to deliver 19 Managed and Controlled Motorway schemes by March 2015.

Southend Airport

David Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent representations he has received on the expansion of Southend Airport.

Paul Clark: Between late 2008 and January this year my Department received five representations on Southend airport from the Member for Southend, West and one from the Member for Rochford and Southend, East, as well as 13 letters and e-mails from members of the public.

East Midlands Trains

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport if he will discuss with East Midlands Trains the merits of reinstating non-stop passenger rail services between London St. Pancras and Kettering; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Mole: The East Midlands timetable was designed to ensure that there is sufficient capacity for the increasing demand at Kettering and other stations on the route. Having long-distance services call at Kettering would increase the likelihood of there being insufficient seats for all passengers.

Rail Franchise System

Andrew Selous: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what plans he has for the future of the rail franchise system.

Chris Mole: "The Future of Rail Franchising", which was published on 20 January, discusses potential changes to franchise competitions and contract design. Consultation papers for the Essex Thameside, East Coast and Greater Anglia were published on 21 January. Final decisions on these franchises will be taken before the invitations to tender are issued.

A14

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether any air pollution mitigation measures are planned as part of the A14 improvement work; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such measures.

Chris Mole: No specific air pollution mitigation measures are planned as part of the A14 Ellington to Fen Ditton improvement as no exceedences of air quality limit values are predicted at any property in the assessment of the scheme. Overall, an improvement in air quality is expected.

Airports: Security

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent measures he has put in place to increase security at UK airports.

Paul Clark: Following the incident on Christmas day, the Government have directed airports to increase the proportion of passengers' baggage tested for traces of explosives, and to introduce explosive trace detection equipment at all UK airports by the end of the year. We have also brought into force new restrictions which tighten up security screening for transit passengers. Alongside this we intend to introduce more body scanners, the first to be deployed at Heathrow.

Aviation: Dual Nationality

Crispin Blunt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what arrangements are in place for the advance registration of air passenger details for holders of duel citizenship who book flights and leave a country on the passport of that country and arrive in the UK using a UK passport.

Paul Clark: Passengers' passport data are collected by airlines at or before the point of departure and transmitted to the UK Border Agency (UKBA) under the e-Borders programme. Discrepancies, such as different passport details, will be picked up by UKBA staff at the border and investigated as necessary.

Aviation: Security

Greg Knight: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what provision his Department plans to make as an alternative to full body scanners for passengers with pacemakers or other implanted electronic medical devices.

Paul Clark: There are currently no plans to provide an alternative to body scanners for passengers with pacemakers or other implanted electronic medical devices. Our advice is that they are safe for passengers with such devices to use.

Dartford Railway Station

Howard Stoate: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what funding his Department expects to provide in respect of the refurbishment of Dartford rail station.

Chris Mole: Dartford station will be receiving £1 million under the National Stations Improvement Programme: a £150 million scheme to enhance around 150 medium sized stations up to 2014. It is anticipated that this will be supplemented by some £6 million third party funding.
	The Department for Transport has also received an application from Dartford station for £6,000 towards a £12,000 Access for All scheme, although the outcome will not be announced until later this year.

Departmental Buildings

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 5 January 2010,  Official Report, column 90W, on departmental buildings, what the addresses of the 13 properties which are beyond economic repair are; for how long each has been empty; how much his Department paid in empty property council tax in respect of such buildings in 2008-09; and what plans there are to sell such properties for redevelopment.

Chris Mole: The Highways Agency uses statutory powers to acquire property in connection with the operation, construction and maintenance of the Trunk Road and Motorway network. The Agency receives Blight Notices under the Town and Country Planning Acts which provide protection for property owners who cannot sell their properties because of planned road improvement schemes. When these notices are accepted, they require the Agency to purchase property in advance of its operational requirements. These properties are held while the scheme is in the programme and the route is protected from development. In some cases this can be for a number of years.
	Where possible, properties are let until they are required for operational purposes or can be sold and their management is contracted out to a private letting and management agent.
	Properties which are not cost effective to repair, but which are repairable, are maintained in their present condition because a future sale may take place. These properties are described as being beyond economic repair. Derelict properties that present a safety risk or will have an enhanced value by having planning permission for rebuild/development may be demolished if it is cost effective to do so.
	The 13 properties beyond economic repair being held by the Highways Agency are detailed in the table. This shows their addresses, how long they have been vacant, and how much council tax has been paid in respect of each property for the financial year 2008-09.
	The road schemes that affected Woodview and Park Hill Lodge are now complete. These properties did not need to be demolished and are now at the beginning of the Agency's disposal process. The other 11 properties are not available for sale.
	The Agency obtains appropriate professional advice about valuation, method of sale and planning potential in respect of all its surplus properties. The Agency has not yet obtained that advice in respect of Woodview and Park Hill Lodge.
	
		
			  Property address  Vacant period  Council tax 2008-09 (£)  Comments 
			 The Old Farmhouse, Ashflats Lane, Stafford 15 years 240 days 1,060.49 Highways Agency's managing agents have been instructed to seek planning permission for it to be demolished and rebuilt once it is sold. 
			 4 Grange Farm Cottages, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge 9 years 233 days 737.39 Required to be demolished for the road scheme. 
			 Darlaston County Kennels, Yarnfield Lane, Stone, Staffordshire 7 years 241 days 1,301.41 Highways Agency's managing agents have been instructed to seek planning permission for it to be demolished and rebuilt once it is sold. 
			 Farm Manager's Cottage, Iridge Place, Hurst Green, East Sussex 2 years 274 days 0 Was to be let in current condition to the buyer of an adjoining Highways Agency property, this sale has just fallen through. Options currently being considered. 
			 Bantony Manor House, Silverhill, East Sussex 6 years 108 days 0 Listed building-currently reviewing options and bidding for funds to bring back into use in next financial year. 
			 May Day Farm, Pembury Road, Tonbridge, Kent 284 days 0 Listed building required to be demolished for the road scheme, demolition consent currently being applied for as part of scheme design. 
			 Firholme Farm, Great North Road, Richmond 12 years 60 days 0 Required to be demolished for the road scheme but early demolition is currently being considered. Demolition for the scheme was imminent but this section of the scheme has been re-programmed. 
			 South Lodge, Great North Road, Brompton-On-Swale, Richmond 6 years 240 days 0 Required to be demolished for the road scheme but early demolition is currently being considered. Demolition for the scheme was imminent but this section of the scheme has been re-programmed. 
			 Woodview, Todhills, Carlisle, Cumbria 4 years 212 days 1,338.49 Currently being declared surplus and will be sold in its current condition. 
			 382 Stockport Road West, Stockport 8 years 304 days 1,309.56 Not cost effective to repair, likely to be sold to local authority for their road scheme. 
			 The Cottage, Lostock Hall Farm, Lostock Hall Road, Poynton, Stockport, Cheshire 7 years 243 days 1,034 Not cost effective to repair, likely to be sold to local authority for their road scheme. 
			 Canberra Farm Bean Leach Road, Stockport 2 years 62 days 1,410.11 Highways Agency's managing agents have been instructed to seek planning permission for it to be demolished and rebuilt once it is sold. 
			 Park Hill Lodge Walton Road, Wetherby 12 years 152 days 0 Currently being declared surplus and will be sold in its current condition.

Departmental Buildings

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 5 January 2010,  Official Report, column 90W, on departmental buildings, for what reasons there are 34 properties vacant in the disposal process.

Chris Mole: To ensure best value for the taxpayer the Highways Agency sells properties that are surplus to operational requirements with vacant possession whenever possible.
	One property has just been sold. The remaining 33 properties that are currently vacant and in the disposal process are:
	in the process of being formally declared surplus by the Agency, this includes obtaining and acting on planning/valuation and sales advice;
	being offered to former owners under the Crichel Down Rules;
	being offered for sale on the open market;
	under offer awaiting legal completion of the sale.

Departmental Carbon Emissions

Neil Gerrard: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether  (a) his Department,  (b) its agencies and  (c) associated non-departmental public bodies plan to sign up to the 10:10 campaign for cutting carbon usage in 2010; and if he will publish the (i) criteria and (ii) research upon which such a decision will be taken.

Chris Mole: The Department for Transport is committed to delivering its share of the challenging targets which the Government have set for long term reductions in carbon usage on the Government Estate, but does not intend to sign up to the 10:10 campaign which is focussed on reductions this year.
	The Department is involved in a number of initiatives and has several activities underway targeted at reducing carbon emissions.
	Those activities include:
	Carbon Reduction Commitment-due to start in April 2010;
	The Carbon Trust Standard-attainment in the next financial year.
	Carbon Budgets-the Department has worked closely with DECC, DEFRA and OGC to set the scope of transport emissions;
	Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) Framework-the Department continues to work with OGC, and DEFRA, looking to extend the SOGE travel targets to include commuter travel and freight supply emissions;
	Low Carbon Vehicles-the Department is supporting the trial of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and the Government Car and Despatch Agency will trial a plug-in hybrid later this year;
	Biomass and Combined Heat & Power Plant-these technologies are being considered as part of boiler replacement programmes in the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency;
	Motorway Lighting-the Highways Agency is running a number of pilots where motorway lighting is switched off during certain off-peak, low usage periods.

Departmental Mobile Phones

Graham Stuart: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many  (a) mobile telephones and  (b) BlackBerrys were provided to (i) Ministers and (ii) special advisers in each year since 2007-08; and at what cost to the public purse.

Chris Mole: The details are as follows:
	
		
			   2007-08  2008-09  2009-10 to date 
			   Number  Cost (£)  Number  Cost (£)  Number  Cost (£) 
			  Mobiles   
			 Ministers 2 144 1 72 0 0 
			 Special advisers 1 68 0 0 0 0 
			
			  BlackBerrys   
			 Ministers 1 200 0 0 2 435 
			 Special advisers 0 0 2 600 0 0

Departmental Pay

Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much funding his Department has allocated for  (a) year-end and  (b) in-year bonuses for its staff in 2009-10.

Chris Mole: An element of the Department for Transport's overall pay award is allocated to non-consolidated variable pay related to performance. These payments are used to drive high performance and form part of the pay award for members of staff who demonstrate exceptional performance, for example by exceeding targets set or meeting challenging objectives.
	Non-consolidated variable pay awards are funded from within existing pay bill controls, and have to be re-earned each year against pre-determined targets and, as such, do not add to future pay bill costs. The percentage of the pay bill set aside for performance-related awards for the SCS is based on recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
	The wages and salary budget for 2009-10 is £546,266,100, of which non-consolidated performance payments represents an estimated range of 1.7 to 2 per cent.

Departmental Public Expenditure

David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department spent on  (a) new furnishings,  (b) works of art and  (c) new vehicles in each of the last two years.

Chris Mole: The information requested for the Department for Transport and its seven executive agencies is provided in the following table.
	
		
			  £ 
			   (a) New furnishings  (b) Art  (c) New vehicles 
			  Organisational unit  2008-09  2007-08  2008-09  2007-08  2008-09  2007-08 
			  Central Department   
			 London Headquarters 287,683 504,646 1,162 0 0 0 
			 Air Accident Investigation Branch 18,374 26,529 0 0 0 0 
			 Rail Accident Investigation Branch 962 11,543 0 0 0 0 
			 Marine Accident Investigation Branch 823 103,878 0 0 0 0 
			
			 Driving Standards Agency (1)- (1)- 0 0 150,860 103,000 
			 Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (2)- (2)- 0 0 0 0 
			 Government Car and Despatch Agency (1)- (1)- 0 0 1,315,000 1,004,000 
			 Highways Agency 259,820 1,799,366 0 0 (3)18,983.687 (3)624,832 
			  (4)3,117,871 (4)2,382,303 
			 Maritime and Coastguard Agency (1)- (1)- 0 0 837,619 1,197,629 
			 Vehicle Certification Agency 8,599 6,329 0 0 0 13,915 
			 Vehicle and Operator Services Agency 98,920 164,179 0 0 1,273,850 676,490 
			 (1)( )Data not recorded as a specific cost category within the accounting system in use and only available at disproportionate cost.  (2)( )During 2007 to 2009 DVLA was in the process of refurbishing its Morriston site under a PFI contract. DVLA are unable to accurately provide a breakdown of the furnishing costs.  (3)( )Purchased.  (4)( )Leased.   Note:   The Highways Agency: Data at  (a) include furniture, office refurbishments and fit-out costs for offices and regional control centres. The increase in the 2008-09 vehicle purchase costs is due to the Highways Agency entering into a four-year framework contract on 2 January 2008 with two suppliers; Romaquip and Schmidt UK, for the purchase of over 430 salt spreaders and snow ploughs to replace its current fleet. The costs for 2008-09 relate to the first-year order comprising of a total of 159 salt spreaders, all equipped with snow ploughs, and a further 40 additional snow ploughs. The vehicles used by Highways Agency Traffic Officers are leased. The figures quoted are the total cost of the vehicle leasing contracts for each of the two years. Leasing payments cover the cost of the vehicles, servicing, maintenance, tyres and windscreens, etc. Most vehicles are leased for 18 months, or 150,000 miles. There are now 207 Traffic Officer Vehicles in the fleet.

Departmental Public Expenditure

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department  (a) budgeted to spend and  (b) spent from (i) the Total Annual Managed Expenditure budget and (ii) the Departmental Expenditure Limit budget for 2008-09.

Chris Mole: The information requested is set out in the following table:
	
		
			  2008-09 
			  £ million 
			   Budget  Outturn 
			 Annual managed expenditure 3,988 3,729 
			 Departmental expenditure limit 14,105 12,701

Departmental Public Expenditure

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department  (a) budgeted to spend and  (b) spent from (i) the Annually Managed Expenditure budget and (ii) the Departmental Expenditure Limit budget for 2009-10.

Chris Mole: The information requested is set out in the following table:
	
		
			  2009-10 
			  £ million 
			   Budget  Spend to date (end December 2009) 
			 Annually managed expenditure 4,092 2,778 
			 Departmental expenditure limit 15,422 11,121

Departmental Public Expenditure

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department  (a) budgeted to spend and  (b) spent from the Annually Managed Expenditure budget on (i) Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO) 1, (ii) DSO 2, (iii) DSO 3, (iv) DSO 4 and (v) DSO 5 for 2008-09.

Chris Mole: The in year budget for 2008-09 was not set against departmental strategic objectives. The outturn is set out in the following table:
	
		
			  Annually managed expenditure, 2008-09 
			   Outturn (£ million) 
			 DSO 1 1,892 
			 DSO 2 110 
			 DSO 3 1,655 
			 DSO 4 72 
			 DSO 5 0 
			 Total 3,729

Departmental Public Expenditure

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department  (a) budgeted to spend and  (b) spent from the Departmental Expenditure Limit budget on (i) Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO) 1, (ii) DSO 2, (iii) DSO 3, (iv) DSO 4 and (v) DSO 5 for 2008-09.

Chris Mole: The in year budget for 2008-09 is not set against departmental strategic objectives. The spend to date is set out in the following table:
	
		
			  Departmental expenditure limit, 2008-09 
			   Outturn (£ million) 
			 DSO 1 7,366 
			 DSO 2 966 
			 DSO 3 2,187 
			 DSO 4 2,067 
			 DSO 5 115 
			 Total 12,701

Departmental Public Expenditure

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department  (a) budgeted to spend and  (b) spent to date from the Annually Managed Expenditure Budget on (i) Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO) 1, (ii) DSO 2, (iii) DSO 3, (iv) DSO 4 and (v) DSO 5 for 2009-10.

Chris Mole: The in year budget is not set against Departmental Strategic Objectives. The spend to date is set out as follows:
	
		
			  Annually managed expenditure 2009-10 
			   Spend to date( 1)  (£ million) 
			 DSO 1 1,423 
			 DSO 2 85 
			 DSO 3 1,274 
			 DSO 4 -4 
			 DSO 5 - 
			 Total 2,778 
			 (1) End December 2009.

Departmental Public Expenditure

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department  (a) budgeted to spend and  (b) has spent to date from the Departmental Expenditure Limit Budget on (i) Departmental Strategic Objective (DSO) 1, (ii) DSO 2, (iii) DSO 3, (iv) DSO 4 and (v) DSO 5 for 2009-10.

Chris Mole: The in year budget is not set against Departmental Strategic Objectives. The spend to date is set out as follows:
	
		
			  Departmental expenditure limit 2009-10 
			   Spend to date( 1)  (£ million) 
			 DSO l 6,373 
			 DSO 2 762 
			 DSO 3 2,445 
			 DSO 4 1,518 
			 DSO 5 23 
			 Total 11,121 
			 (1) End December 2009.

East Coast Main Line

Mike Wood: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport which organisation will undertake the consultation for the new East Coast Mainline timetable; when that consultation will start and end; and where consultation responses should be sent to.

Chris Mole: Public consultation on proposals for a new East Coast Main Line timetable is being carried out by East Coast-the current operator of those services. I understand that consultation has already commenced and will run until the end of February. Details of the proposals and the address for responses are available on East Coast's website at:
	http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/

East Coast Main Line

Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport when the tendering process for East Coast rail services is likely to begin; and whether an option to continue Kings Cross to Glasgow via Newcastle services will be included in the tender.

Chris Mole: The Invitation to Tender for the new Intercity East Coast franchise will be issued in autumn 2010.
	The Department for Transport is consulting stakeholders on the specification for the new ICEC franchise. The service specification will be based on the timetable implemented in May 2011, which as currently proposed does include one service each way between Glasgow and King's Cross.
	Under the proposed May 2011 timetable, most East Coast services to/from Scotland will operate to/from Edinburgh and Cross-country services between Penzance/Plymouth and Edinburgh will be extended to/from Glasgow, providing a two-hourly through service between Glasgow, Edinburgh, stations on the East Coast Main Line as far south as York, Leeds, Sheffield, the Midlands and south-west England.

East Coast Main Line

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what estimate his Department has made of the financial savings that would result from cancelling  (a) the East Coast pilot fleet of the Inter-city Express Programme and  (b) the Inter-city Express Programme East Coast depot.

Chris Mole: The 'pilot fleet' or Pre-Series Trains concept no longer applies.
	The Department for Transport has appraised costs of East Coast Main Line depot provision. It is not appropriate to comment further as confidential commercial negotiations with Agility Trains are ongoing.

Green Bus Fund

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much funding from the £30 million of the Green Bus Fund announced in December 2009 has been provided to each recipient bus company; and what estimate his Department has made of the number of jobs  (a) created and  (b) safeguarded (i) directly and (ii) indirectly through this expenditure.

Sadiq Khan: The following table shows the Green Bus Fund's winning bidder organisations, the number of buses each organisation intends to purchase with fund grant and the amount of grant offered to each organisation, which includes both bus operators and local authorities, by the Department for Transport.
	
		
			  Bidding organisations, number of buses to be funded and grant offered under the Green Bus Fund 
			  Bidding organisation  Number of buses to be funded  Grant offered (£) 
			 Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive 66 3,157,740 
			 Transport for London 46 4,968,000 
			 Stagecoach in Manchester 30 2,786,886.90 
			 Stagecoach in Oxfordshire 26 2,351,506.30 
			 Rotala plc 23 2,880,258 
			 First West and North Yorkshire 22 1,705,322.40 
			 Reading Transport Ltd. 20 2,166,500 
			 West Midlands Travel Ltd. 20 1,271,450 
			 First Manchester 14 1,013,109.02 
			 Cumfybus Ltd. 13 1,385,163 
			 Mike de Courcey Travel Ltd. 13 750,000 
			 Hatch Green Coaches 9 882,000 
			 Holsworthy Ltd. (trading as Beacon Coaches) 9 855,720 
			 Nexus (Tyne and Wear PTE) 8 784,800 
			 On a Mission Coaches 6 600,000 
			 Johnsons (Henley) Ltd. 4 282,196 
			 Nottingham City Council 4 392,400 
			 R. Bullock & Co. (Transport) Ltd. (trading as Bullocks Coaches) 4 448,000 
			 Durham County Council 3 294,300 
			 Milton Keynes Council 3 300,000 
			 Blueworks Taxis Ltd. 2 265,740 
			 Ipswich Buses Ltd. 2 222,276 
			 Bath and North East Somerset Council 1 126,990 
			 Thames Travel (Wallingford) Ltd. 1 120,828 
			 Total 349 30,011,185.62 
		
	
	The Department estimates that around 1,000 jobs will be safeguarded in the bus manufacturing industries as a result of the Green Bus Fund investment. The Department does not have an estimate of the number of jobs which will be created by the fund.

Southeastern Railway: Standards

David Evennett: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport which recent assessment he has made of the performance of Southeastern Railway in discharging its obligations under its franchise agreement.

Chris Mole: The franchise agreement specifies performance standards in respect of:
	The number of trains arriving at final destination within four minutes and 59 seconds of advertised time;
	The number of delay minutes caused by Southeastern;
	The number of train cancellations caused by Southeastern; and
	Provision of specified train capacity.
	Department for Transport officials review Southeastern's performance against the standards set out in the franchise agreement periodically. At the end of Rail Industry Period 9, Southeastern was performing within the target levels for each of these performance standards. The PPM Moving Annual Average figure of 91.1 per cent. for the end of the period was the best ever achieved on the Southeastern network. Officials are currently reviewing performance against Rail Industry Period 10, which was severely affected by the recent adverse weather.

M25: Tolls

Bob Russell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport 
	(1)  how many bids have been received to purchase the M25 tunnels and bridge crossings of the Thames;
	(2)  on what date his Department sought expressions of interest for the purchase of the M25 tunnel and bridge crossings of the Thames; by what means it did this; by what date firm bids are required to be received; and if he will make a statement;
	(3)  how many expressions of interest have been received for the purchase of the M25 tunnel and bridge crossings of the Thames.

Chris Mole: The Department for Transport has not invited or received any expressions of interest or bids for the purchase of the Dartford Crossing.
	As discussed in the Operational Efficiency Programme: Asset Portfolio published in December 2009, work to assess future capacity requirements and commercialisation options is ongoing.

M25: Tolls

Bob Russell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what discussions he has had with  (a) Essex county council and  (b) Kent county council over the proposed sale of the M25 tunnels and bridge crossing of the Thames; if he will ensure that a proportion of the proceeds of any sale will be given to  (a) Essex county council and the unitary authorities of Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea and  (b) Kent county council; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Mole: At this early stage no formal discussions have been held with Essex county council and Kent county council on this specific issue.

Network Rail: Manpower

David Anderson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport if he will take steps to ensure that Network Rail maintains staffing levels adequate to maintain the railway system.

Chris Mole: Staffing is an operational matter for Network Rail. Network Rail is required to deliver substantial efficiency savings for the operation, maintenance and renewal of the network over the next five years, set by the independent Office of Rail Regulation.
	The independent Office of Rail Regulation has ultimate responsibility for assessing that Network Rail's activities do not put at risk the safety of passengers and the work force.

Rail Safety and Standards Board: Research

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what research the Rail Safety and Standards Board is undertaking; and how much that research  (a) has cost to date and  (b) is estimated to cost in total on completion.

Chris Mole: The strategic research programme was launched by the Department for Transport in September 2008. Details of the research being undertaken are published on the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) website at:
	www.rssb.co.uk
	The specific costs of research are a matter for the RSSB and the hon. Member should contact:
	Len Porter
	Chief Executive
	Rail Safety and Standards Board
	Block 2
	Angel Square
	1 Torrens Street
	London
	EC1V 1NY
	The Minister announced that the cost to complete the strategic research programme is £15 million from spring 2009 and will run for five and a half years.

Railways: Franchises

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 21 January 2010,  Official Report, column 35WS, on rail franchises, whether the consultation with key stakeholders in respect of the proposed rail franchise for InterCity East Coast will include  (a) Peterborough City Council,  (b) Opportunity Peterborough Urban Regeneration Company,  (c) Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce,  (d) Peterborough Environment City Trust and  (e) Members of Parliament; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Mole: The InterCity East Coast Franchise consultation document has been published on the Department for Transport's website at:
	www.dft.gov.uk
	We welcome responses from all interested parties. Peterborough city council and Members of Parliament with constituencies in the InterCity East Coast franchise area are formal consultees and have been notified that the consultation is taking place, but it is also open to any other interested party to request a copy of the consultation document and respond to the consultation.

Railways: Franchises

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many rail franchises he expects to re-tender in each of the next four years.

Chris Mole: Three new franchises are expected to start in 2011, two in 2012, one in 2013 and one in 2014.
	This assumes that the operators of franchises containing break points meet the continuation review criteria related to performance in the cases where these reviews have not yet taken place.

Railways: Glasgow

Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what the timetable is for the public consultation on the future of direct London Kings Cross to Glasgow via Newcastle rail services will be; and when he expects a final decision to be  (a) made and  (b) implemented.

Chris Mole: Public consultation on proposals for a new East Coast Main Line timetable, including services between King's Cross and Glasgow via Newcastle, is being carried out by East Coast-the current operator of those services. Consultation has already commenced and will run until the end of February. Details of the new timetable will be finalised during spring and summer 2010 for implementation in May 2011.

Railways: Olympic Games 2012

Bill Etherington: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what discussions he has had with the Olympic Delivery Authority on the likely effects of any removal of the through East Coast Main Line rail service to Glasgow on the level of spectator access to Olympic football tournament matches at Hampden Park from the North East; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Mole: As part of a recasting of the East Coast Main Line timetable there is a change to the rail services between Edinburgh and Glasgow currently provided by East Coast. The number of services will remain the same as at present; however, from May 2011 they will be provided by Arriva Cross County.
	While Department for Transport Officials are in regular contact with the Olympic Delivery Authority about public transport for the games, there have been no detailed discussions about this specific service.
	Transport planning for the games, both in terms of infrastructure and services, is the responsibility of the Olympic Delivery Authority.
	They consider both the likely demand for all Olympic events and the travel patterns of spectators. Where they believe additional capacity is required the Olympic Delivery authority are in discussions with the train operating companies to provide enhanced services during the games.

Railways: Public Sector

John Austin: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what assessment he has made of the value for money of operating rail passenger services under public ownership; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Mole: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 7 January 2010,  Official Report, column 501W.

Railways: Tickets

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what assessment he has made of the financial consequences arising from the introduction of main line station gating.

Chris Mole: The financial consequences of station gating schemes will be dependent on the level of fare evasion on a particular route, the yield per passenger from that station, and effectiveness of other revenue protection measures.
	Gating schemes can also help reduce crime and increase the attractiveness of the service by increasing the visible presence of staff at a station, further increasing revenue.
	Recent gating schemes have shown significant revenue increases, even when considering the capital costs of installation and increased staff costs.

Shipping: Yemen

Stephen Crabb: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport 
	(1)  how many vessels carrying  (a) crude oil or refined products and  (b) liquefied gas which berthed at UK ports in each of the last six months had berthed in Yemen en route to the UK;
	(2)  what recent assessment he has made of the risks to UK security from vessels which have travelled from Yemen berthing at UK ports; and what recent steps he has taken to minimise such risks.

Paul Clark: According to statistics reported to the Department for Transport no oil or liquid gas was shipped direct to the UK from Yemen in 2008, the latest period for which statistics have been published. The Department does not hold statistics on whether ships carrying such cargo from other sources might have called in the Yemen.
	Both transport and other security procedures are in place as appropriate for all vessels berthing at UK ports.

Southend Airport: Carbon Emissions

David Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the effect on the level of greenhouse gas emissions of  (a) passenger and  (b) cargo aircraft using Southend Airport in the last 12 months; what representations he has received on this matter since January 2009; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Clark: The Department for Transport's latest assessment of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from passenger and freight aircraft using the UK's main airports is published in Annex G of "UK Air Passenger Demand and CO2 Forecasts 2009". This is available at:
	http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/atf/co2forecasts09/
	However airport-level assessments are only produced for the UK's 31 largest airports and therefore no assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from passenger and freight aircraft using Southend Airport is available. We have not received any representations on the issue since January 2009.

Southend Airport: Noise Pollution

David Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent representations he has received on aircraft noise at Southend Airport; what response he gave; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Clark: No recent representations have been received. However in compliance with EU requirements, Southend airport -in common with other major airports-is preparing a noise action plan in consultation with local communities. The development of the action plans provides a key opportunity for local consultation on noise issues.
	The airport is currently conducting a public consultation on the draft plan. This consultation closes on 9 February. The airport will then consider consultation responses before submitting a final draft plan to the Secretaries of State for Transport and for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for consideration for formal adoption.

Southend Airport: Noise Pollution

David Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what research his Department has commissioned on levels of noise pollution in the area surrounding Southend airport in the last three years.

Paul Clark: No research relating to noise pollution and Southend airport has been commissioned by the Department for Transport in the last three years.

Speed Limits: Cameras

Greg Knight: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport for what reasons the Highways Agency has installed a speed camera on the A46 southbound near the Carholme roundabout at Lincoln; and what criteria were used to determine the location of such a camera.

Chris Mole: The safety camera was installed in 1998 by Lincolnshire police following a number of accidents at the location. This was prior to the introduction of national guidance about the installation of safety cameras. The camera is now managed by the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership and its operation is reviewed at six monthly intervals.

Transport: Disabled

Mark Harper: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent discussions officials in his Department have had with the Joint Committee on Mobility for Disabled People; and what steps his Department takes in order to meet its disability equality duty through its relationship with the Committee.

Sadiq Khan: Department for Transport officials attended two of the regular meetings in December 2008 and June 2009 arranged by the Joint Committee on Mobility for Disabled People. The Chair of the Committee was also invited to, and attended, a meeting about enforcement of the Blue Badge scheme that was convened by the DFT in March 2009. Members of the Committee have been invited to a seminar on Blue Badge reform in June 2010.
	The Department is meeting its disability equality duty by ensuring that disabled people are actively involved in and consulted on aspects of the Blue Badge reform programme. As well as the seminar that is being arranged for June 2010, members from some representative groups, for example, Mobilise, are participating in steering groups. Regular newsletters are issued to all stakeholders and officials continue to meet regularly with other representative groups, for example, the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, as well as with the Joint Committee on Mobility for Disable People.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Dangerous Dogs: Kent

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many dogs have been seized and put down in  (a) Ashford constituency and  (b) Kent in the last 12 months.

Jim Fitzpatrick: Figures relating to the numbers of dogs seized and put down are not held centrally. Such information may be held by Kent police and the various local authorities.

Departmental Location

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for what reasons his Department decided not to complete a sustainability appraisal prior to relocating offices in 2007-08.

Dan Norris: The office move in 2007-08 saw DEFRA staff situated in 1a Page Street relocated to our principal offices at Nobel House and Ergon House. This move was facilitated by restructuring of the DEFRA business, including a reduction in staff numbers, and provided an opportunity to reduce property costs.
	The Department did not complete a sustainability appraisal because it was satisfied that the reduction in the estate DEFRA occupied, together with better use of the space in the remaining offices would contribute positively over time to DEFRA's overall environmental performance.
	DEFRA has now explicitly incorporated the sustainability appraisal into our criteria for location decisions, which also include business and financial considerations.

Departmental Pay

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff in his Department received bonus payments in 2008-09; what proportion of the total work force they represented; what the total amount of bonuses paid was; what the largest single payment was; and if he will make a statement.

Dan Norris: An element of DEFRA's overall pay award is allocated to non-consolidated variable pay related to performance. These payments are used to drive high performance and form part of the pay award for members of staff who demonstrate exceptional performance, for example by exceeding targets set or meeting challenging objectives.
	Non-consolidated variable pay awards are funded from within existing pay bill controls, and have to be re-earned each year against predetermined targets and, as such, do not add to future pay bill costs. The percentage of the pay bill set aside for performance-related awards for the SCS is based on recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
	The following tables provide details of the number of staff who received non-consolidated performance pay, the proportion of the total work force they represented, the total amount paid on non-consolidated performance payments paid and the largest single payment in 2008-09, reflecting performance in the 2007-08 performance year.
	Table 1 covers staff at Grade 6 and below in core-DEFRA and those executive agencies covered by the core-Department's terms and conditions, i.e. Animal Health, Veterinary Medicines Directorate and the Marine and Fisheries Agency.
	Table 1 also includes senior civil servants in core DEFRA and its executive agencies (Animal Health, Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Marine and Fisheries Agency, Rural Payments Agency, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the Central Science Laboratory-which is now part of the Food and Environment Research Agency, which was created on 1 April 2009.)
	Tables 2 to 5 cover staff at Grade 6 and below, employed in those executive agencies who operate delegated pay arrangements (Rural Payments Agency, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the Central Science Laboratory-which is now part of the Food and Environment Research Agency, which was created on 1 April 2009).
	
		
			  Table 1: core DEFRA 
			   Number, percentage,   amount ( £ ) 
			 Number of staff who received non-consolidated performance pay 1,914 
			 Proportion of work force (percentage) 40 
			 Total amount of non-consolidated performance payments 3,072,554 
			 Largest single non-consolidated payment 17,250 
		
	
	
		
			  Table  2: Rural Payments Agency 
			   Number, percentage,   amount ( £ ) 
			 Number of staff who received non-consolidated performance pay 958 
			 Proportion of work force (percentage) 26 
			 Total amount of non-consolidated performance payments 507,572 
			 Largest single non-consolidated payment 800 
		
	
	
		
			  Table  3: Veterinary Laboratories Agency 
			   Number, percentage,  amount ( £ ) 
			 Number of staff who received non-consolidated performance pay 195 
			 Proportion of work force (percentage) 15 
			 Total amount of non-consolidated performance payments 47,409 
			 Largest single non-consolidated payment 605 
		
	
	
		
			  Table  4: Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science 
			   Number, percentage,   amount ( £ ) 
			 Number of staff who received non-consolidated performance pay 501 
			 Proportion of work force (percentage) (1)91 
			 Total amount of non-consolidated performance payments 773,747 
			 Largest single non-consolidated payment 5,405 
			 (1) The agency operates a performance related pay scheme that links corporate and individual performance objectives to non-consolidated performance payments. It comprises a CEFAS corporate performance-related payment to all eligible staff, as well as an individual performance related payment element for a smaller proportion of staff, around 40 per cent. The figure quoted represents the percentage of staff who received a corporate non-consolidated performance award. 
		
	
	
		
			  Table  5: Central Science Laboratory (which is now part of the Food Research Agency, created on 1 April 2009) 
			   Number, percentage,   amount ( £ ) 
			 Number of staff who received non-consolidated performance pay 333 
			 Proportion of work force (percentage) 48 
			 Total amount of non-consolidated performance payments 264,280 
			 Largest single non-consolidated payment 3,806

Departmental Pay

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the  (a) average and  (b) highest non-consolidated performance related payment for senior civil servants in his Department was in cash terms in each of the last five years.

Dan Norris: An element of DEFRA's overall pay award is allocated to non-consolidated variable pay related to performance. These payments are used to drive high performance and form part of the pay award for members of staff who demonstrate exceptional performance, for example by exceeding targets set or meeting challenging objectives.
	Non-consolidated variable pay awards are funded from within existing pay bill controls, and have to be re-earned each year against predetermined targets and, as such, do not add to future pay bill costs. The percentage of the pay bill set aside for performance-related awards for the SCS is based on recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
	The following table details the average and the maximum payment for a non-consolidated variable pay award, to senior civil servants, awarded under the DEFRA standard pay and performance management process for the five most recent performance years for which the relevant payments have been published in the Department's accounts. The data cover senior civil servants in core-DEFRA and its executive agencies (Animal Health, Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Marine and Fisheries Agency, Rural Payments Agency, Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Centre for the Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the Food and Environment Research Agency.
	
		
			   Performance year 
			   2004-05  2005-06  2006-07  2007-08  2008-09 
			 Average value of non-consolidated performance payment (£) 4,000 6,000 7,500 8,500 9,000 
			 The value of maximum non-consolidated payment (£) 20,350 15,147 15,640 17,250 15,000 
			   
			 Percentage of SCS paybill set aside for non-consolidated performance payments 5 6.5 7.6 8.6 8.6

Departmental Pay

Lee Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much has been paid in bonuses to civil servants in his Department in each year since 2006.

Dan Norris: I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps) on 27 January 2010,  Official Report, columns 871-872W.

EU Law

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what  (a) statutory instruments and  (b) other regulations his Department has brought forward in the 2005 Parliament to meet obligations arising from EU law.

Dan Norris: Central records of statutory instruments made under specific powers have only been maintained by the Statutory Instruments Registrar since 2001. There are no central records maintained of "other regulations". Since that time my Department has made 445 statutory instruments to meet obligations arising from EU Law, under powers contained in the European Communities Act 1972
	DEFRA has maintained internal statistics on statutory instruments for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009, but not "other regulations", made in connection with obligations arising from EU law. These statistics do not distinguish between those made under the European Communities Act 1972 and other powers, or between those that implement EU Law and those otherwise connected with it (e.g. fees).
	
		
			   Number 
			 2007 100 
			 2008 51 
			 2009 58

Flood Control: Finance

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what criteria Natural England has put in place in order to enable landowners to be paid through the single payment scheme to permit the introduction of flood alleviation schemes.

Huw Irranca-Davies: There is no scope under the EU rules governing the single payment scheme for making payments for the introduction of flood alleviation schemes.

Nitrogen Oxide: Heathrow Airport

Desmond Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the outcome was of the Government's application to the European Commission for a derogation from the nitrogen oxide limits around Heathrow Airport.

Jim Fitzpatrick: The UK Government, like most other EU member states, is working to develop its application to the European Commission to secure the additional time available to meet the limit values for nitrogen dioxide as provided for in the Directive on Ambient Air Quality (2008/50/EC). The application will need to set out, for those parts of the country not yet in compliance, including around Heathrow airport, how the limit values for nitrogen dioxide will be achieved by 2015.
	The latest date for submitting applications to secure the additional time available under the Directive on Ambient Air Quality (2008/50/EC) is September 2011.

WALES

Bosch

Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what meetings he  (a) has had and  (b) plans to have with Welsh Assembly Government Ministers on (i) the effects on employment in companies supplying the Bosch factory in Cardiff on the relocation of the factory outside of the UK and (ii) the effect of the possible closure of other Bosch factories in Wales.

Peter Hain: I have had various discussions including with the First Minister and Unite and will continue to do so.
	The Welsh Assembly Government are already working with Bosch to identify their Welsh suppliers and are offering support to those affected.

Departmental Manpower

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many layers of management reporting from the most senior to the most junior there are in his Department; how many officials are employed in each such layer; and how much was spent on salaries and associated employment costs of staff at each such layer in the latest year for which information is available.

Peter Hain: The Wales Office has six layers of management reporting from the most senior to the most junior.
	Collective salaries for officials employed in each layer are not given, due to disproportionate costs.
	However, salary ranges for each grade stipulated by the Ministry of Justice, of which the Wales Office is a part; and the senior civil service pay structure for the latest year-are provided as follows by way of estimate.
	
		
			  Grade  Staff number  Pay range 
			 Pay band 2 (SCS) 1 £82,900-£162,500 
			 Pay band 1 (SCS) 3 £58,200-£117,750 
			 Grades 6/7 (band A) 11 £47,228-£66,695 
			 SEO 8 £33,835-£44,300 
			 HEO 12 £27,825-£35,704 
			 EO 14 £22,755-£28,000

Departmental Pay

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales pursuant to the answer of 26 November 2009,  Official Report, columns 282-83W, on departmental pay, how many and what proportion of staff of his Department received  (a) an annual performance bonus and  (b) an in-year bonus in 2008-09; and who was responsible for awarding such bonuses.

Peter Hain: In 2008-09:
	 (a) Five members comprising 9 per cent. of the total Wales Office staff total, each received an annual performance bonus. They were awarded by the Ministry of Justice in recognition of outstanding performance in compliance with the MOJ pay related performance system.
	 (b) Nil staff received in-year bonuses during that period.

Departmental Written Questions

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what average time his Department took to answer questions for  (a) ordinary written answer and  (b) named day questions in the last 12 months.

Peter Hain: The information is as follows:
	 (a) Ordinary written questions: Total of 263 received, 242 answered within five sitting days (92 per cent.)
	 (b) Named day questions: Total of 38 received, 35 answered on the specified date (92 per cent.)
	With effect from the current Session of Parliament, each Department will provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics on the time taken to answer written questions. This implements recommendation 24 of the third report from the Procedure Committee, Session 2008-09.

HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION

House of Commons: Access

Andrew MacKinlay: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission if he will take steps to ensure that the number of people attending the Parliament Choir concert on 17 March does not affect the ability of constituents and other members of the public to obtain access to the House for meetings with hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Harvey: Access to the Palace of Westminster will be maintained throughout the Parliament Choir concert on 17 March 2010.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Police Service of Northern Ireland

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of Police Service of Northern Ireland police officers are Catholic.

Paul Goggins: As of 1 January 2010, the percentage of Catholic police officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland was 27.68 per cent.

Police Service of Northern Ireland

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of those who apply to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland as police officers are Catholic.

Paul Goggins: Since the inception of the PSNI there have been 15 recruitment campaigns. 37.33 per cent. of applicants for these competitions indicated their religious background as Catholic.

Police Service of Northern Ireland

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many  (a) Catholics and  (b) non-Catholics were recruited as police officers by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Paul Goggins: During the course of the 2009 calendar year, 201 Catholics and 209 non-Catholics were recruited to the PSNI.

SCOTLAND

Departmental Housing

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many  (a) empty and  (b) occupied residential properties his Department owns; and what recent estimate he has made of the (i) potential annual rental and (ii) total book value of those (A) empty and (B) occupied residential properties.

Ann McKechin: The Scotland Office does not own any residential properties.

Departmental Written Questions

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what average time his Department took to answer questions for  (a) ordinary written answer and  (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months.

Ann McKechin: Between January to December 2009 the Scotland Office:
	 (a) answered 61 per cent. of 274 ordinary written questions within five sitting days,
	 (b) answered 93 per cent. of 29 named day questions on the day specified.
	With effect from the current Session of Parliament, each Department will provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics on the time taken to answer written questions. This implements recommendation 24 of the 3rd report from the Procedure Committee, Session 2008-09.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

Arts Council of England

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 13 January,  Official Report, column 1039W, on Arts Council England: finance, whether the methodology used to calculate the annual efficiency savings Arts Council England expects to make as part of its reorganisation process was approved by Ministers.

Margaret Hodge: Arts Council England contribute to the Department's value for money (VFM) programme, reported to Parliament in the DCMS autumn performance report and annual report. The methodology for the Government VFM programme is agreed by the Treasury and subject to review by the National Audit Office.
	Arts Council England continually seek and deliver additional efficiency savings which are reported to the Department on a regular basis.

Arts Council of England

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer of 13 January,  Official Report, column 1038W, on Arts Council England, what recent representations he has received on the restructuring of Arts Council England since 1993.

Margaret Hodge: Ministers and officials meet regularly with Arts Council England and other stakeholders. Issues such as organisational restructuring are often discussed in these meetings

Departmental NDPBs

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for how many non-departmental public bodies his Department is responsible.

Si�n Simon: DCMS is responsible for 56 public bodies. These comprise: four public corporations, two public broadcasting authorities, one Executive agency, 47 non-departmental public bodies (36 Executive NDPBs, 10 advisory NDPBs and one tribunal NDPB), plus two unclassified bodies who receive Exchequer funding.
	Information and statistical data on the DCMS bodies are contained in the DCMS Public Bodies Directory, which can be found on the DCMS website:
	http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/2009DCMS PublicBodiesDirectory.pdf
	Since publication UK Anti Doping (an Executive NDPB) has been created.

Licensed Premises: Alcoholic Drinks

Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many premises had a 24 hour alcohol licence in each year since 2005.

Gerry Sutcliffe: My Department estimates the following number of premises licensed for the sale or supply of alcohol for 24 hours in their standard timings, in force on 31 March in each of the last three years in England and Wales (rounded to the nearest hundred):
	
		
			  Premises with 24-hour alcohol licences 
			   Number 
			 2007 6,000 
			 2008 7,100 
			 2009 7,400 
			  Source:  The Alcohol, Entertainment and Late Night Refreshment Licensing Bulletin 2008-09. 
		
	
	On 31 March 2009, this made up 4 per cent. of all premises licences and club premises certificates authorised to sell alcohol. The possession of a 24-hour licence does not necessarily mean that the premises will choose to open for 24 hours.
	Prior to the 2003 Act, hotels were authorised to sell alcohol to residents and their private guests only, outside of permitted licensing hours and were able to apply to keep this provision under 'grandfather rights'.

Local Press

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment his Department has made of the effect on local newspapers of local authority publications.

Si�n Simon: The Audit Commission published its report on 22 January and we are currently studying the findings.

Olympic Games: Canada

Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many members of staff of  (a) Sport England,  (b) UK Sport and  (c) the Olympic Delivery Authority plan to attend the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February 2010; and at what cost in each case.

Gerry Sutcliffe: Sport England advise that they will not be sending representatives to the Winter Olympics.
	UK Sport advise that three members of their organisation will be attending the Winter Olympics, at a cost of £21,824.84.
	The Olympic Delivery Authority advise that two members of staff will be attending the observer programme for the games. The cost for accommodation and travel totals £7,726.90.

Swimming: Concessions

Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the budget is for the PricewaterhouseCoopers evaluation of his Department's free swimming programmes; and when he expects the report to be published.

Gerry Sutcliffe: holding answer 25 January 2010
	As set out in the HM Treasury guidance 'The Green Book-Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government', the ability to judge how effectively Government resources have been expended is essential to their strategic long-term management. We have therefore commissioned a full, robust and independent evaluation of the £140 million Free Swimming Programme. This includes a detailed online survey of swimmers and non-swimmers to supplement questions placed on the Active People Survey, as well as case studies of participating and non-participating local authorities. The cost of the PricewaterhouseCoopers contract for the evaluation of the Free Swimming Programme is £379,000, less than 0.3 per cent. of the total cost of the programme. The contract is managed by Sport England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
	We expect two reports to be published-a 'year one' report in early summer 2010, and a final report in early summer 2011.
	This analysis will provide useful information about the overall impact of the free swimming programme on swimming participation, as well as evidence about 'what works' in different contexts to drive increased swimming participation, enabling better targeting of future investment.

Tickets: Sales

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps his Department is taking to regulate the sale of event tickets by third parties.

Si�n Simon: In addition to existing legislation governing the sale of tickets for football matches, the Olympic games and Commonwealth Games, the Department issued a Consultation on Ticketing and Ticket Touting running from 19 February 2009 to 15 May 2009.
	We intend to publish our conclusions shortly.

Tourism

Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on what occasions the  (a) Tourism Advisory Council,  (b) inter-Ministerial Group on Tourism and  (c) Tourism 2012 Ministerial Advisory Group have met since April 2009.

Margaret Hodge: The Tourism Advisory Council was established in April 2009 and to date has met four times, on 30 April, 1 July, 19 October and 18 January 2010.
	The inter-Ministerial Group on Tourism has met twice since April 2009, on 5 May and 17 November.
	Since April 2009 the work of the Ministerial Advisory Group was absorbed into the Tourism Advisory Council to ensure a strong link between the work to address recessionary conditions and Tourism 2012.

Tourism: Marketing

Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent steps his Department has taken to promote tourism in Britain.

Margaret Hodge: VisitBritain are responsible for marketing Britain overseas as a tourist destination, and VisitEngland are responsible for marketing England to British residents. Some of the recent initiatives that have been undertaken to attract tourists to Britain include the 'Value for Money' campaign for which VisitBritain and VisitEngland invested £6.5 million over the spring and summer 2009.
	The overseas 'Value for Money' campaign involved an investment of £3.5 million and reached 18 markets in 21 languages and was undertaken in close co-operation with the airlines Easyjet and British Airways. VisitBritain's office in the USA also launched a campaign with Virgin Atlantic to stimulate travel to the UK which involved an investment of US$1 million.
	The domestic 'Value for Money' campaign involved an investment of £3million in VisitEngland's 'Enjoy Every Minute, Enjoy England' campaign, which was designed to stimulate more day visits, short breaks and holidays in England. In the first nine months of 2009 visits by UK residents in England increased by 6 per cent.
	In July 2009 England secured the Rugby League World Cup in 2013 and the Rugby Union World Cup in 2015. These sporting events will present many tourism opportunities, as will the recent announcement that there will be an additional Bank holiday during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012. British tourism will also benefit from the launch last July of a competition to find the nation's first 'City of Culture'. 14 bids are now being considered. Becoming Britain's 'City of Culture' in 2013 will stimulate the city's visitor economy.
	2012 also provides a powerful opportunity to promote tourism and we are working to ensure that we use the 2012 games to maximise the economic benefits for the British tourism industry.
	In addition, the overall level of public sector investment in tourism from local, regional and national sources is likely to exceed £2 billion in the current spending review period. The Government believe this public investment is a good and reasonable investment in support for the tourism and hospitality industry.

SOLICITOR-GENERAL

Departmental Pay

Vincent Cable: To ask the Solicitor-General how many staff in the Law Officers' Departments received bonus payments in each of the last five years for which information is available; what proportion of the total workforce they represented; what the total amount of bonuses paid was; what the largest single payment was; and if she will make a statement.

Vera Baird: Non-consolidated performance payments are an integral element of the reward package for staff. These payments are used to drive high performance and form part of the pay award for members of staff who demonstrate exceptional performance, for example by exceeding targets set or meeting challenging objectives. They have to be re-earned each year and do not add to future pay bill costs, e.g. pensions. A close and effective link between pay and performance and increased use of variable pay is a key element of the reward arrangements for the civil service and the senior civil service (SCS) in particular.
	Reward arrangements, including the criteria for non-consolidated performance pay, below the SCS, are delegated to individual Departments and agencies. For the SCS, Departments and agencies are responsible for their own reward arrangements within a framework set by Cabinet Office. The percentage of the pay bill set aside for performance-related awards for the SCS is based on recommendations from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
	Tables covering the specific information requested have been deposited in the Library of the House. These tables detail as far as we are able to ascertain from our records the number of people who were eligible for and received a non-consolidated variable pay award, the average and maximum payment for a non-consolidated variable pay award, by civil service band, and the total amount of non-consolidated variable pay awards paid in each of the five most recent performance years for which the relevant payments have been published in the Department's accounts.

Departmental Written Questions

David Simpson: To ask the Solicitor-General what average time the Law Officers' Departments took to answer questions for  (a) ordinary written answer and  (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months.

Vera Baird: Data on the average length of time taken to answer written parliamentary questions are not routinely recorded by my Office, and it is not possible to provide a reliable estimate based on existing records.
	Measures are currently being put in place to begin recording more detailed information on parliamentary questions for the current and future parliamentary sessions.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Vincent Cable: To ask the Solicitor-General when she plans to answer question 300379, on departmental pay, tabled on 18 November 2009.

Vera Baird: I have done so today.

DEFENCE

Animal Experiments

Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what equipment tests using animals were conducted by his Department in each of the last five years.

Quentin Davies: holding answer 14 January 2010
	The MOD does not use animals as part of its equipment testing programme. The MOD conducts research involving the use of animals only where absolutely necessary and where there is currently no alternative. The research supports the welfare of the armed forces; it includes medical countermeasures, combat casualty care and environmental safety. All research involving the use of animals is subject to regular review and is carried out in strict accordance with the requirements of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

AWE Aldermaston

Vincent Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans his Department has for the development of new nuclear weapons at Aldermaston.

Quentin Davies: As the 2006 White Paper 'The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent' (Cm 6994) makes clear, the current warhead design is likely to last into the 2020s. Decisions on how and whether we may need to refurbish or replace this warhead are likely to be necessary in the next Parliament.

Capenhurst Nuclear Power Station

Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 18 January 2010,  Official Report, columns 17-18W, on radioactive materials: imports, from which countries of origin the uranium which was enriched to military grade at the gaseous diffusion plant at BNFL Capenhurst was obtained; and what materials have been enriched at that plant since 31 March 2002.

Bob Ainsworth: Our records indicate that all uranium used in the production of highly enriched uranium (HEU) for military purposes at the Capenhurst Gas Diffusion Plant was supplied prior to the 1960s and came mainly from the Congo. No HEU for military purposes has been produced at Capenhurst since 1962.

Departmental ICT

Claire Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which departmental information technology projects have been outsourced to companies based overseas in the last three years; and what the monetary value was of each such contract.

Quentin Davies: Information on projects that have been outsourced is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	Information on the MOD's PFI commitments is published in our Annual Report and Accounts, copies of which are available on the MOD internet site:
	http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/CorporatePublications/AnnualReports/

Departmental Written Questions

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what average time his Department took to answer questions for (a) ordinary written answer and  (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months.

Quentin Davies: The information is not held in the format requested. However, during the 12 months up to 31 December 2009, 67 per cent. of ordinary written questions and 74 per cent. of named day written questions were answered on time.

European Defence Agency

Liam Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in which  (a) initiatives and  (b) programmes of the European Defence Agency the UK is participating; and what the cost to the UK is of each in 2009-10.

Bill Rammell: UK support of the EU military capability helps strengthen the Common Security and Defence Policy and Europe's contribution to NATO, both of which are in our national interest. The Ministry of Defence participates in the development of military capability through the European Defence Agency in the following areas:
	Capability Development Plan and capability improvement strategy;
	Collaborative Database strategy;
	Computer Information Systems (CIS) Information Exchange Requirements (IERs);
	Computer Network Operations;
	Counter Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED);
	Counter Portable Air Defence Systems (C-MANPADS);
	Defence Data;
	European Armaments Co-operation strategy;
	European Defence Exports Market;
	European Defence Research and Technology (EDRT) strategy;
	European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) strategy:
	Ammunitions
	Depth and Diversity of Small/Medium Enterprises
	Future Air Systems
	Security of Supply, Offsets and the Level Playing Field;
	Helicopters availability;
	Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) architecture;
	Maritime Mine Countermeasures (MMCM);
	Maritime Surveillance Networking;
	Medical Support;
	Military Airworthiness and Certification Authorities (MAWA);
	Military aspects of a Comprehensive Approach;
	Networked Enabled Capabilities (NEC);
	Satellite Communications;
	Secure Management Infrastructure;
	Space Situational Awareness;
	Third Party Logistics Support;
	The UK contributes to capability development in a variety of forms, including financial, equipment and systems testing and the sharing of knowledge, expertise and experience. As the costs of these capability development areas are shared among participating nations, including through national financial contributions to the European Defence Agency's budget, we are unable to accurately apportion specific individual costs to the UK. Our financial contribution to the Agency's budget for calendar year 2009 was £3.03 million.

European Defence Agency: Finance

Liam Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what  (a) financial and  (b) other contribution his Department has allocated to the (i) European Defence Agency and (ii) EU military staff in (A) 2008-09, (B) 2009-10 and (C) 2010-11.

Bill Rammell: The Ministry of Defence's financial and personnel contribution to the European Defence Agency (EDA) and European Union Military Staff (EUMS) are provided in the following table. The Department's wider contributions to these organisations has included the loan or use of equipment and systems in support of testing and trials, and the provision of expert knowledge and advice through the UK's military operational experience. UK support of the EU military capability helps strengthen the Common Security and Defence Policy and Europe's contribution to NATO, both of which are in our national interest.
	
		
			   European Defence Agency  European Union Military Staff 
			  Calendar year( 1)  £ million  Personnel( 2)  £ million  Personnel( 2) 
			 2008 3.11 7 0 18 
			 2009 3.03 7 0 20 
			 2010(3) 4.01 7 0 20 
			 (1) EDA uses the calendar year as its financial year. (2) Up to. (3) Estimated figures for 2010.

Members: Correspondence

James Arbuthnot: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will reply to the letters from the right hon. Member for North East Hampshire of 26 June and 14 August 2009 on Calthorpe Park Secondary School.

Bob Ainsworth: I apologise for the delay in the response. This was due to the large volume of letters this Department received on Afghanistan issues. A letter was sent on 26 January.

Military Aircraft: Helicopters

Liam Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent discussions he has had with the European Commission on its Green Helicopter initiative; and if he will make a statement.

Bill Rammell: There have been no recent discussions between UK Defence Ministers and the European Commission on its Green Helicopter initiative. We remain committed to minimising the environmental impact of our equipment wherever possible.

Somalia: Piracy

Andrew MacKinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence who was authorised to inform the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner about the attempt by special forces to rescue Paul and Rachel Chandler; for what reasons that authorisation was given; what account was taken of the effects of the disclosure on the safety of the Chandlers; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Ainsworth: It is long-standing policy not to comment on matters relating to UK special forces, as their disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces.

Special Forces: Disclosure of Information

Andrew MacKinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his policy is on authorising public disclosure of information on operations by special forces; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Ainsworth: It is the policy of the Ministry of Defence not ordinarily to comment on UK special forces. The UK's special forces are bound by a confidentiality contract that requires express prior authority in writing from the Ministry of Defence to be given before any disclosure can be made.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Carer's Premium: Tyne and Wear

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners received a carer premium with their pension credit, housing benefit or council tax benefit in each social service authority area in Tyne and Wear in  (a) 2005 and  (b) 2009.

Angela Eagle: The information is not available for housing benefit or council tax benefit. The available information for pension credit is in the following table.
	
		
			  Pension credit claimants in Tyne and Wear with carer's premium 
			   Number 
			 May 2005 5,100 
			 May 2009 7,120 
			  Notes: 1. Caseload figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Pension credit is claimed on a household basis and therefore the number of people that pension credit helps is the number of claimants in addition to the number of partners for whom they are also claiming.  Source: DWP Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study

Child Benefit

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the child benefit disregard in respect of housing benefit and council tax benefit introduced on 2 November 2009 is  (a) awarded without claim or  (b) claimed for; and if she will estimate the number of residents of Newcastle upon Tyne to whom this disregard applies.

Helen Goodman: Approximately 200,000 current customers benefited from the full introduction of the disregard of child benefit in the assessment of housing benefit and council tax benefit when the local authorities reviewed their entitlement in November 2009. We estimate that a further 200,000 working families would be entitled to housing benefit and council benefit if they made a claim following the change in November 2009.
	We are unable to provide an estimate of the number of residents in Newcastle upon Tyne to whom this disregard applies.

Cold Weather Payments

William Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent estimate she has made of the number of older people who do not claim the cold weather payment to which they are entitled.

Helen Goodman: Cold weather payments are paid automatically to all those who qualify for them and no one needs to make an application.

Cold Weather Payments

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have claimed the cold weather payment in  (a) Jarrow constituency,  (b) South Tyneside,  (c) the North East and  (d) the UK in each year since its inception.

Helen Goodman: Cold weather payment information is available only by weather station, not by constituency, local authority or region. Information for Great Britain is provided in the following table. Information on cold weather payments in Northern Ireland is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
	The available information is provided in the following table.
	
		
			  Cold weather payments for Great Britain 
			   Number of payments made 
			 1991-92 3,827,000 
			 1992-93 2,503,000 
			 1993-94 2,064,000 
			 1994-95 11,000 
			 1995-96 7,252,000 
			 1996-97 4,964,000 
			 1997-98 55,000 
			 1998-99 26,000 
			 1999-2000 114,000 
			 2000-01 3,535,000 
			 2001-02 1,804,000 
			 2002-03 1,675,000 
			 2003-04 418,000 
			 2004-05 213,000 
			 2005-06 988,000 
			 2006-07 402,000 
			 2007-08 472,000 
			 2008-09 8,416,000 
			  Notes:  1. Since 1991-92 people have not had to claim to receive their entitlement to cold weather payments, as payments have been made automatically following a trigger.  2. The information provided is for the number of payments made. As some people may have received more than one payment in a winter, the number of payments made is generally greater than the number of people who received a payment.  3. The cold weather payment period runs from 1 November to 31 March for each year.  4. The number of payments has been rounded to the nearest 1,000.   Source:  Annual reports by the Secretary of State for Social Security / Work and Pensions on the Social Fund.

Crisis Loans

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what restrictions on the granting of crisis loans were introduced in 2009-10; what assessment has been made of the effects of those restrictions; and whether further restrictions are being considered.

Helen Goodman: Measures introduced during 2009 to ensure that Crisis Loans are targeted at those most in need of support from the cash-limited social fund budget have been to:
	Prohibit a second Crisis Loan for living expenses for the same period, (not applied if a disaster or emergency not of customer's own making has arisen since the first award).
	Require customers to attend a face to face interview when making their third or subsequent application for a Crisis Loan for living expenses in a rolling 12 month period (excluding those awaiting a decision on their benefit claim). In exceptional circumstances Crisis Loan Decision Makers can waive the need for the customer to attend an interview.
	Limit the number of Crisis Loans for living expenses a customer can receive to three in a rolling 12 month period (not applied if a disaster or emergency not of customer's own making has arisen). This measure has been tested in the South West and East Midlands. There are no plans to roll it out nationally.
	Following the national introduction of the measure to interview customers on their third and subsequent application on 30 October 2009, a formal evaluation into the effectiveness of this measure will be undertaken shortly.
	No further changes are planned for this financial year.

Maternity and Paternity Pay

Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much her Department has spent on statutory  (a) maternity and  (b) paternity pay in each relevant year since 1997.

Helen Goodman: holding answer 26 January 2010
	The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for Statutory Maternity Pay and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is responsible for Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay.
	The available information on spending on Statutory Maternity Pay is in the following table. Information on a longer time series of spending figures can be found at the following web link:
	http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/Alltables_Budget2009_Values.xls
	
		
			  Department for Work and Pensions expenditure on statutory maternity pay 
			   Statutory maternity pay (outturn) (£ million) 
			 1997-98 502 
			 1998-99 553 
			 1999-2000 635 
			 2000-01 648 
			 2001-02 636 
			 2002-03 724 
			 2003-04 1,035 
			 2004-05 1,291 
			 2005-06 1,184 
			 2006-07(1) 1,287 
			 2007-08(1) 1,469 
			 2008-09(1) 1,751 
			 (1) Figures are estimated outturn for the years in question. The figures relate to Great Britain, and are for Government expenditure to balance employer recoveries from the national insurance fund.  Source: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/Alltables_Budget2009_Values.xls 
		
	
	The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills publishes its expenditure on Statutory Paternity Pay as part of its Annual Report which can be found here:
	www.berr.gov.uk/aboutus/corporate/performance/annual-spending/page25111.html
	
		
			  Department for Business, Innovation and Skills expenditure on Statutory Paternity Pay 
			   Statutory paternity pay (£ million) 
			 2003-04 20.0 
			 2004-05 37.8 
			 2005-06 50.0 
			 2006-07 6.7 
			 2007-08 42.8 
			  Note: Figures also includes the Department's spend on Statutory Adoption Pay.  Source: Department for Business Innovation and Skills Annual Reports

Pensions: Financial Assistance Scheme

William Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if she will take steps to ensure that pensioners who have lost all or a greater part of their pension due to failed occupational pension schemes are fully compensated under the new Financial Assistance Scheme regulations, with particular reference to  (a) indexation reflecting that provided by their original schemes and  (b) backdating to cover normal retirement age.

Angela Eagle: On 17 December 2007, the Government announced a major extension to the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS). This provided for people to be paid 90 per cent. of their accrued pension, revalued to the date of entitlement, subject to a maximum limit, which is currently £29,386. Payments are made from the member's normal retirement age (subject to a lower age limit of 60 and an upper limit of 65).
	Payments based on rights accrued since April 1997 are increased in line with inflation, subject to a 2.5 per cent. cap. This is the same as occupational pension schemes are required to provide by legislation and is also in line with what the Pension Protection Fund provides.
	No payments are made for any period before 14 May 2004, when the Financial Assistance Scheme was announced.
	The Government believe this is a generous and appropriate final settlement.

Post Office Card Account

Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of benefit payments of each type were paid into post office card accounts in  (a) the UK,  (b) England,  (c) Wales,  (d) Scotland,  (e) each English region and  (f) each parliamentary constituency in the latest period for which figures are available.

Helen Goodman: holding answer 26 January 2010
	The information has been placed in the Library.

Poverty: Children

Brian Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if she will estimate the number of children in relative poverty who will not be in relative poverty in January 2012.

Helen Goodman: Many of the policy initiatives announced since Budget 2007 have not yet shown up in the child poverty figures. Although we do not have an estimate for January 2012, measures announced since Budget 2007, including the pre-Budget report 2009, are estimated to reduce the number of children in poverty by around 550,000.

Winter Fuel Payments

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners  (a) aged 80 years and over have claimed the £400 winter fuel payment and  (b) aged 60 years and over have claimed the £250 winter fuel payment in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) the North East and (iv) the United Kingdom in each winter since 2007-08.

Angela Eagle: The information requested on the number of claims is not available. Most customers do not need to claim the winter fuel payment as the majority of payments are sent out automatically by the Department.
	The number of payments made for winters 2007-08 and 2008-09 (the last winter for which information is available) is in the following table:
	
		
			   2007-08  2008-09 
			   Number of customers aged:  Number of customers aged : 
			   60-79 years  80 and over  60-79 years  80 and over 
			 Jarrow 13,990 3,420 14,170 3,550 
			 South Tyneside 25,490 6,580 25,880 6,720 
			 North East 434,660 99,800 443,830 101,770 
			 Great Britain(1) 9,664,550 2,424,190 9,886,690 2,470,690 
			 (1 )Information regarding Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland Office.   Notes:  1. Households with those aged 60-79 received £250 and those aged 80 and over received £400. These payments were shared between qualifying individuals in each household.  2. Payment figures are rounded to the nearest 10.  3. Expenditure figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1 million.  4. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory.

Winter Fuel Payments: Ashford Kent

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners resident in Ashford constituency are in receipt of the winter fuel allowance; and how much her Department paid to such pensioners in winter fuel allowance in 2009.

Angela Eagle: For winter 2008-09 (the last winter for which information is available), 24,310 people received a winter fuel payment in Ashford at a cost of £5.1 million.
	 Notes:
	1. Payment figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
	2. Expenditure figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1 million.
	3. Parliamentary constituencies are assigned by matching postcodes against the relevant ONS postcode directory.

JUSTICE

Industrial Health and Safety

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will place in the Library a copy of the advice issued to departmental staff on stress recognition and management.

Michael Wills: Advice and guidance on stress recognition and management is available to all staff on the Ministry of Justice intranets. I will make arrangements for the guidance material to be placed in the Library.

Bail and Accommodation Support Service

Dominic Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many residents of ClearSprings properties have had their residency terminated following a breach of terms of residency in each month since June 2007;
	(2)  how many residents have been received into ClearSprings properties in each month since June 2007.

Maria Eagle: The number of residents, to 30 November 2009, who have breached their terms while accommodated by ClearSprings for the period of their bail or Home Detention Curfew (HDC) licence and the number accommodated is shown in the following table. Residents accommodated through this service are subject to a level of surveillance and reporting to a support officer which does not apply to others on bail and HDC living privately in the community.
	
		
			  Number 
			   Breached  Total accommodated 
			  2007   
			 June 1 1 
			 July 3 10 
			 August 13 31 
			 September 13 38 
			 October 20 59 
			 November 38 114 
			 December 42 108 
			
			  2008   
			 January 41 125 
			 February 53 128 
			 March 42 127 
			 April 50 157 
			 May 53 156 
			 June 56 146 
			 July 49 164 
			 August 42 161 
			 September 47 157 
			 October 50 198 
			 November 56 166 
			 December 49 169 
			
			  2009   
			 January 59 153 
			 February 59 163 
			 March 48 190 
			 April 39 175 
			 May 51 152 
			 June 57 178 
			 July 60 186 
			 August 41 159 
			 September 63 182 
			 October 64 202 
			 November 66 181

Departmental Drinking Water

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department has spent on bottled drinking water in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Wills: The Ministry's accounting records do not specifically record expenditure on bottled water. To identify relevant expenditure would require examination of thousands of individual invoices, many held locally within the courts, prison and probation systems, and would incur disproportionate cost.
	It has, however, been possible to identify expenditure on bottled water for Ministry of Justice headquarters for the first two full financial years since it was established which is as follows:
	
		
			   £ 
			 2008-09 1,382 
			 2007-08 1,364 
		
	
	The expenditure relates to bottled water used for water coolers and dispensers. The cost includes sanitisation and maintenance of these devices. Bottle fed water dispensers are usually found in small local offices or old premises that are due to be vacated. Water dispensers are gradually being replaced by mains-fed water filtration systems across the Ministry's estate. This process is aligned with the Ministry's strategy to rationalise and modernise its national and regional estate to provide more economical, fit for purpose accommodation which is environmentally sustainable.
	The Ministry no longer provides bottled water when catering for meetings or events within its headquarters buildings.

Departmental Internet

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been spent on  (a) strategy and planning,  (b) design and build,  (c) hosting and infrastructure,  (d) content provision and  (e) testing and evaluation for his Department's websites in each of the last three years; and what budget has been allocated for such activities in 2009-10.

Michael Wills: The Ministry of Justice costs for hosting the Department's websites across the years 2007-08 and 2008-09 and the budget allocation for 2009-10 are as follows:
	
		
			   £ 
			 2007-08 1,625,160 
			 2008-09 1,410,000 
			 2009-10 (forecast) 1,410,000 
		
	
	These figures include the cost of website hosting and infrastructure for www.justice.gov.uk and a number of other internal and external web sites, services and applications. Costs cannot be separated out for the departmental website (justice.gov.uk) as the contract covers parts of the wider web estate of the Ministry. External expenditure on other aspects of non-ICT website support for www.justice.gov.uk including strategy and planning, design and build, content provision and testing and evaluation is included in the following figures.
	
		
			   £ 
			 2008-09 111,773 
			 2009-10 (forecast) 150,000 
		
	
	Comparable figures are not available for 2007-08 because of organisational and accounting changes.
	The expenditure year to date (to end of December 2009) is £71,728 and the Ministry does not expect to spend the full budget allocation.
	As there is more use of the internet for Government services, we need to make information about the work of the Department more readily available to citizens and the media, enhancing transparency and accountability for what we do. All our internet users-who include legal practitioners, academics and researchers-are able to use the range of resources published on our website either to work more efficiently within the justice system or to engage with the Department's day-to-day work and to contribute to our published consultations on proposals for change. Investment in web services aims to enhance the user experience, providing easier access to MOJ information and services and delivering in a way that meets audience needs.

Departmental Mobile Phones

Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many  (a) mobile telephones and  (b) BlackBerrys have been provided to (i) Ministers and (ii) special advisers in his Department since the financial year 2008-09; and at what cost to the public purse.

Michael Wills: The number of BlackBerry devices and mobile telephones currently in use by Ministers and special advisers is as follows:
	
		
			   Ministers  Special advisers 
			 BlackBerrys 5 2 
			 Mobile Telephones 2 - 
		
	
	Included in the above figures is one BlackBerry that was allocated to a Minister in June 2009, and one replacement BlackBerry that was provided to a special adviser since April 2009. Both devices were reallocated from a central pool so there was no additional purchase cost. There have been no new mobile telephones provided to Ministers or special advisers since April 2009.
	The cost of using these BlackBerry devices and mobile telephones has been identified from available records, for the period April to November 2009, which is the latest period for which figures are available. The cost includes call charges, line rental, equipment hire, and telecom support costs. Details are as follows:
	Ministers: £2,219.00
	Special advisers: £794.00.
	These figures do not include the support costs for the Department's BlackBerry service as it would not be possible to identify the costs on an individual basis without incurring disproportionate cost.

Family Justice Review

Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what opportunities he expects there to be for members of the public to contribute to the review of the family justice system in England and Wales announced on 20 January; when the review panel will be appointed; whether it will hold public hearings; and whether its proceedings will be  (a) published and  (b) subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Bridget Prentice: Hearing the public's views will be an essential part of the Family Justice Review. The decision on how the public will contribute, whether there will be any public hearings and whether their proceedings will be published, will be taken by the review panel. The review panel will be named shortly. All information relating to the review will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Filing Store Operations: Coventry

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the merits of  (a) proposals to outsource the filing store operations at Coventry and  (b) alternative proposals for the future of those operations.

Michael Wills: Land Registry currently holds its archived year files in 10 file stores across the country, of which Coventry is one. Outsourcing of this activity is one of the proposals currently subject to consultation within Land Registry. All responses to the consultation, including alternative options for achieving efficiencies, will be considered. It is too early to say what the impact would be on any particular file store if the outsourcing goes ahead, but final decisions to outsource will only be taken where it is clear that this will deliver value for money.

Hotels

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department spent on hotel accommodation for  (a) Ministers,  (b) special advisers and  (c) civil servants in each of the last five years.

Jack Straw: The Ministry of Justice accounting systems do not separately identify expenditure on hotel accommodation.
	To provide the relevant information at the level of detail requested for the entire Ministry would involve the disproportionate cost of collating data from our designated travel management companies as well as manual examination of large volumes of records held locally by the Ministry of Justice headquarters and its four executive agencies (the National Offender Management Service (incorporating the National Probation Service), Her Majesty's Court Service, Tribunals Service and Office of the Public Guardian).
	The majority of hotel bookings are arranged through travel management companies employed by the Ministry to obtain best value for money options. All other expenditure is incurred only on production of valid receipts.
	All hotel bookings by Ministers and civil servants are undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Management Code respectively.
	The annual departmental resource accounts disclose expenditure on travel, subsistence and hospitality in notes 10 (administration expenditure) and 11 (programme expenditure). Resource accounts were published by the Ministry of Justice for 2007-08 and 2008-09 and prior to that by the Ministry's predecessor, the Department for Constitutional Affairs. All published accounts can be found at:
	http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/
	Analysis of published totals to identify amounts relating specifically to hotels would incur disproportionate cost.

Land Registry

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent representations his Department has received on the Land Registry accelerated transformation programme.

Michael Wills: Since the publication of its consultation document on 22 October 2009, Land Registry has received responses from many interested parties including customers, MPs and members of staff. I have also met some MPs and staff representatives to discuss the proposals. Following the closure of the consultation on 29 January 2010 all of the responses will be carefully considered.

Land Registry

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent estimate he has made of the percentage of land not registered with the Land Registry; and what assessment he has made of the likely effects of the Land Registry accelerated transformation programme on the prospects for registration of such land.

Michael Wills: Over 70 per cent. of land in England and Wales, including most urban land, is now registered with Land Registry in about 21 million registered titles. The registered area has increased from 45 per cent. in 2004, when data on geographic coverage first became available. This growth is principally attributable to Land Registry's strategy of persuading landowners of the benefits of voluntary first registration. A large percentage of the land that remains unregistered is in rural areas or includes large estates or public landholdings.
	One of Land Registry's strategic objectives is to Extend the benefits of Land Registration by creating a comprehensive land register. The accelerated transformation programme proposals assume that Land Registry will continue to dedicate resources to voluntary registration and set challenging targets annually to drive the achievement of the comprehensive register.

Land Registry: Coventry

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has for the future of the Land Registry office in Coventry.

Michael Wills: Land Registry published their Accelerated Transformation Proposals on 22 October 2009. These proposals are subject to a period of public consultation which ends on 29 January 2010. Under the current proposals, Land Registry would retain an office in Coventry. The proposals assume a further review of estates requirements in 2011. The future of the Coventry office would be considered as part of that review.

Legal Complaints Service

Jonathan Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average cost to the public purse was of the consideration of a complaint by the Legal Complaints Service in each of the last five years.

Bridget Prentice: The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) is wholly funded by the Law Society and not the public purse.
	The Legal Services Act 2007 introduces a new way of handling complaints and establishes the Office for Legal Complaints to provide a single point of entry for all service complaints about providers of regulated legal services. Under current plans, the OLC will become fully operational by the end of 2010. The set-up costs and running costs will by funded initially by the Government through grant in aid and recovered through a levy on the legal sector, so that there will be no cost to the public purse.

Legal Complaints Service

Jonathan Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how long on average the Legal Complaints Service took to consider a complaint in each of the last five years.

Bridget Prentice: The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) has provided the following information:
	
		
			   Average time for consideration of a complaint (days) 
			 2009 93 
			 2008 97 
			 2007 106 
			 2006 131 
			 2005 147

Monarchy: Succession

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will place in the Library a copy of the legal advice upon which the Government rely in asserting that the provisions of Section 1 of the Act of Settlement 1700 do not give illegitimate children the right of succession to the Crown.

Claire Ward: I refer the hon. Member to the answer my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Justice (Mr. Wills) gave on 25 January 2010,  Official Report, column 704W and the answer I gave on 26 January 2010,  Official Report, column 729W.

Offenders: Social Security Benefits

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many adults aged between 18 and 24 years old who entered custody in  (a) 2007,  (b) 2008 and  (c) 2009 were receiving state benefits at the time of entering custody.

Maria Eagle: Of those 18-24 year old offenders sentenced to custody during 2007, 3,426 were subsequently recorded as having 'state benefits' as their sole or most significant source of income before sentencing. The corresponding figure for those sentenced during 2008 was 3,255. The information was recorded within the Offender Assessment System which is used with 18-20 year old prisoners and with older prisoners serving sentences of more than 12 months. The numbers of assessments used to produce the 2007 and 2008 figures were 7,345 and 7,132 respectively. As the figures are drawn from administrative IT systems, they are subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale assessment and recording system.
	No figure is provided for 2009 as the data have not been fully collated.

Prisoners: Compensation

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the monetary value was of each of the 10 largest  (a) court-ordered payments and  (b) out of court settlements made to prisoners by (i) the National Offender Management Service and (ii) Her Majesty's Prison Service in the last five years; and what the nature of the claim was in each such case.

Claire Ward: The 10 largest court awards and out of court settlements made as a result of civil litigation brought by prisoners or former prisoners against the Prison Service/custodial side of the National Offender Management Service for the period 1 April 2004 to 25 January 2010 are detailed in the following table. Such claims are only settled on the basis of strong legal advice from Prison Service's appointed solicitors and/or barristers. Taking indefensible cases through to court only results in more expense to the public purse. Therefore, NOMS loses very few prisoner cases at court and this accounts for the difference in the figures between court awards and out of court settlements. Details of claims against individual probation boards/trusts are not recorded centrally and to provide the information would require looking through the records of each individual board or trust which would entail disproportionate costs.
	
		
			  Type of claim  Out of court settlement  (£) 
			 Personal Injury 2.8 million 
			 Medical Negligence 1.14 million 
			 Personal Injury 575,000 
			 Personal Injury 472,000 
			 Medical Negligence 375,000 
			 Medical Negligence 270,000 
			 Medical Negligence 255,000 
			 Medical Negligence 163,000 
			 Medical Negligence 150,000 
			 Personal Injury 150,000 
			 Personal Injury 21,778 
			 Claim by Estate 20,000 
			 Breach of Human Rights 17,729 
			 Breach of Human Rights 15,314 
			 Damage/loss of Property 9,050 
			 Personal Injury 9,000 
			 Damage/loss to Property 7,000 
			 Damage/loss to Property 4,367 
			 Personal Injury 3,500 
			 Personal Injury 3,210

Prisoners: Death

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many  (a) male and  (b) female prisoners have died subsequent to a recommendation for parole and before their release in the last five years.

Maria Eagle: This information is not held centrally. To quantify the number of prisoners who may have died following a recommendation for parole but before their release would require a manual check of individual prisoner records. This would incur disproportionate cost.

Prisons: Drugs

Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many  (a) visitors,  (b) staff and  (c) prisoners were caught attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into each prison in England in each of the last five years; and what steps have been taken in respect of those so caught.

Maria Eagle: The data are not available in the form requested.
	It is the National Offender Management Services' policy to report to the police all incidents where drugs are found in the possession of visitors. National data for the number of visitors arrested is given in the following table.
	
		
			   Number of visitors arrested( 1) 
			 2004-05 439 
			 2005-06 429 
			 2006-07 374 
			 2007-08 424 
			 2008-09 460 
			 (1) These figures include all incidents, the majority will be drug related.  Note:  These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit. To disaggregate into individual prison data would require an investigation into each regional return for the past five years and would be at disproportionate cost. 
		
	
	Prisons often take action against visitors based on suspicion, and before they are caught in possession of drugs, including visit bans, closed visits or closely supervised visits.
	Data on the number of prison officers caught attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into an establishment are held locally and could, only be obtained by consulting all prisons across England and Wales. This would incur disproportionate cost.
	Prisoners caught attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into prison are referred, to the police. Data on the number of prisoners caught attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into an establishment are held locally and could be obtained only by consulting all prisons across England and Wales. This would incur disproportionate cost.

Prisons: Mother and Baby Units

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many children have been admitted to a mother and baby unit in  (a) a prison and  (b) Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre in each of the last 10 years.

Maria Eagle: Historic information on the number of young women under 18 admitted to mother and baby units in prisons and young offender institutions (YOIs) is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
	The Rainsbrook Mother and Baby Unit for young women under 18 opened in 2006. The following table shows the number of young mothers and pregnant young women who have been accommodated in the unit:
	
		
			   Number 
			 2006 5 
			 2007 6 
			 2008 3 
			 2009 4 
			 Total 18 
		
	
	The data have been supplied by the Youth Justice Board and have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and may be subject to change over time.
	The Youth Justice Board reports that since the opening of the Rainsbrook Mother and Baby Unit, there has been only one occasion on which a young mother or pregnant young woman has been placed in an over-18 young offender institution. In 2007, a young mother was placed in Askham Grange YOI just prior to her 18th birthday, to enable her to have both her children with her.

Prisons: Mother and Baby Units

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many women prisoners in mother and baby units are being held at locations more than 50 miles from their home address.

Maria Eagle: As at 22 January 2010, the latest date for which figures are available, 22 women in mother and baby units were held more than 50 miles from their home area.
	All prisoners are asked for details of their home address on first reception to prison and on discharge from prison. About 60 per cent. of prisoners (both male and female) are shown to have given a recognised address. If no address is given, various proxies are used to determine distance from home, including next-of-kin address and committal court address.

Prisons: Security

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department has taken to identify potential ligature points in cellular accommodation in  (a) HM Prison New Hall and  (b) other prisons.

Maria Eagle: The National Offender Management Service has a broad based prisoner suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This requires identifying prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm. Reducing access to potential means of suicide or self-harm at all prisons, including New Hall, forms part of the care of people considered to be at risk. This includes, where necessary, the removal of any personal possessions and furniture in cells which may be used in an act of self-harm.
	In addition, most prisons contain safer cells, which are designed to make the act of suicide or self-harm by use of ligature difficult. This is achieved primarily by reducing ligature points as far as possible. Anti-ligature furniture and fittings are installed as an integral part of the cell fabric.
	However, there are a wide range of objects in cell which may be used as ligature points (such as clothing, essential furniture, washing facilities, etc.) which it is not possible to remove for decency reasons.

Prisons: Security

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department is taking to replace rigid bars in shower doors and frames in cells in  (a) HM Prison The Mount and  (b) other prisons.

Maria Eagle: The National Offender Management Service has a broad based prisoner suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This requires identifying prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm. Reducing access to potential means of suicide or self-harm at all prisons, including HMP The Mount, forms part of the care of people considered to be at risk.
	Potential ligature points in the shower units in cells at HMP The Mount have been negated by the installation of UPVC panels. In more recent accommodation of a similar type in other prisons, velcro curtains have been fitted to a collapsible rail in shower units.
	Decisions whether or not to redesign shower cubicles, are taken locally by individual governors. A central record is not held of prisons which have had this type of modification and these details can be obtained only by contacting each individual establishment at disproportionate cost.

Prisons: Standards

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will place in the Library a copy of the high level evaluation of the introduction of the standardised core day in prisons in England and Wales.

Maria Eagle: I have placed the high level evaluation of the introduction of the standardised core day in prisons in England and Wales in the Library of the House.

Probation

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of time probation staff spend in face to face contact with offenders; and if he will make a statement.

Maria Eagle: Ministers are committed to increasing the amount of time probation staff spend in contact with offenders through reducing the bureaucratic demands on front line staff and tailoring the level of intervention to the risk which the offender presents.
	The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) does not routinely report on the proportion of working time spent in face to face contact with offenders. In December 2008, NOMS undertook a survey, over a one week period, of a small sample of Offenders Managers. It indicated that staff undertaking this role spent 24 per cent. of their time in direct contact with offenders.
	The survey did not cover probation staff responsible for delivery of Community Payback, Accredited Programmes or working within Approved Premises. The proportion of time spent in face to face contact with offenders in these areas of work is considerably higher.

Slough

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will set out, with statistical information related as directly as possible to the Slough constituency, the effects on Slough of the policies and actions of his Department and its predecessors since 2000.

Michael Wills: The Ministry of Justice's work spans criminal, civil and family justice, democracy, rights and the constitution. Every year around 9 million people use our services in 900 locations across the United Kingdom, including 650 courts and tribunals and 139 prisons in England and Wales.
	The range of the Department's policies and actions is wide and the statistical information relating to it is not normally collected on a constituency basis. Consequently, some of the information requested in the question cannot be provided in the form requested except at a disproportionate cost.
	Although data on sentencing for the period are not available for the constituency of Slough, they are available for the Thames Valley. They show that the total number of offenders sentenced annually, was 44,691 in 2000 and 42,353 in 2007, the latest period for which such information is available.
	Likewise, the number of offences brought to justice for the Thames Valley area increased from 31,000 in 2001-02 (the earliest period since which such data have been compiled) to 51,400 in 2007-08.
	With regard to prosecutions, data are not available for the constituency of Slough. However, the total number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts in the Thames Valley decreased from 62,880 in 2000 to 54,090 in 2007.
	The latest data, which cover reoffending in the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, showed that the three-month reoffending rate for offenders on the probation caseload in Slough was 8.16 per cent. After controlling for changes in the characteristics of offenders on the probation caseload, there was a reduction in reoffending of 1.99 per cent. compared to the 2007-08 baseline. Data are not available prior to 2007 on this basis.
	The number of persons commencing supervision by the Probation Service in Thames Valley, was 3,853 in 2000 and 4,783 in 2008.
	44,212 civil non-family proceedings were started in the county courts of Thames Valley HM Courts Service (HMCS) area in 2008, compared to 49,696 in 2000. In respect of family law, there were also 3,573 private law applications and 218 public law applications made in the county or High Courts of this HMCS area in 2008-09, compared to 3,422 and 282 respectively in 2003-04, the first annual period for which these figures are available.
	In addition, at a national level:
	Local communities are being better engaged in criminal justice-by giving them a say in the types of Community Payback projects offenders carry out and allowing them to see justice being done, for example through the use of high visibility jackets. Offenders have now worked more than 14 million hours, with an estimated value to the taxpayer of over £80 million.
	Major constitutional reforms have been delivered, including devolution, the Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information, Lords Reform, and a new Supreme Court for the UK.

Vauxhall

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to Vauxhall constituency, the effects on the constituency of changes to his Department's policies since 1997.

Michael Wills: The Ministry of Justice's work spans criminal, civil and family justice, democracy, rights and the constitution. Every year around nine million people use our services in 900 locations across the United Kingdom, including 650 courts and tribunals and 139 prisons in England and Wales.
	The range of the Department's policies and actions is wide and the statistical information relating to it is not normally collected on a constituency basis. Consequently, some of the information requested in the question cannot be provided in the form requested except at a disproportionate cost.
	Although data on sentencing for the period are not available for the constituency of Vauxhall, they are available for London. They show an increase in the total number of offenders sentenced annually from 202,478 in 1997 to 226,891 in 2007, the latest period for which such information is available.
	Likewise, the number of offences brought to justice for the London area increased from 122,500 in 2001-02 (the earliest period since which such data have been compiled) to 230,000 in 2007-08.
	With regard to prosecutions, data are not available for the constituency of Vauxhall. However, the total number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts by the Metropolitan police increased from 260,328 in 1997 to 265,709 in 2007.
	The latest data, which cover reoffending in the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, showed that the three month reoffending rate for offenders on the probation caseload in Lambeth was 8.05 per cent. After controlling for changes in the characteristics of offenders on the probation caseload, there was a reduction in reoffending of 6.88 per cent. compared to the 2007-08 baseline. Data are not available prior to 2007 on this basis.
	The number of persons commencing supervision by the Probation Service in London was 16,019 in 1997 and 22,233 in 2008.
	158,440 civil non-family proceedings were started in the county courts of London Civil and Family HM Courts Service (HMCS) area in 2008, compared to 263,305 in 1998, the first year for which these figures are available. In respect of family law, there were also 15,512 private law applications and 870 public law applications made in the county or High Courts of this HMCS area in 2008-09, compared to 11,684 and 1,095 respectively in 2003-04, the first annual period for which these figures are available.
	In addition, at a national level:
	Local communities are being better engaged in criminal justice by giving them a say in the types of Community Payback projects offenders carry out and allowing them to see justice being done, for example through the use of high visibility jackets. Offenders have now worked more than 14 million hours, with an estimated value to the taxpayer of over £80 million.
	Major constitutional reforms have been delivered, including devolution, the Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information, Lords Reform, and a new Supreme Court for the UK.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Shailesh Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to reply to Question 303548, on drugs in prisons, tabled on 26 November 2009.

Maria Eagle: I replied to the hon. Member's question today. I apologise for the delay.

Youth Custody: Meals

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice in which  (a) young offender institutions,  (b) secure training centres and  (c) other units juveniles are accommodated securely and meals are taken communally.

Maria Eagle: Young people eat in groups in all secure training centres and in those secure children's homes in which the Youth Justice Board places young people. In under-18 young offender institutions, practice varies between establishments. Only one establishment, the Josephine Butler Unit at Downview, reports that no meals are eaten communally.

Youth Custody: Meals

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many  (a) prisons,  (b) young offender institutions,  (c) secure training centres and  (d) other units in which juveniles are accommodated securely employ a nutritionist.

Maria Eagle: A nutritionist is employed at Huntercombe young offender institution. Secure training centres and secure children's homes do not directly employ nutritionists. However, nutritionists' services are accessed, via establishments' healthcare provision, to assist the needs of individual trainees and to obtain general advice and guidance.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Alcoholic Drinks: Prosecutions

Jeremy Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions for sale of alcohol to a person who is drunk have been brought in each criminal justice area since 2004; and how many resulted in a conviction in each year.

Alan Campbell: holding answer 27 January 2010
	Available information on the number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for the sale of alcohol to a drunk person, under section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003, by police force area, for 2006 and 2007 (latest available) is given in table 1.
	The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. For example, when a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
	A penalty notice for disorder (PND) of £80 may also be issued by the police for certain alcohol related offences such as the sale of alcohol to a person who is drunk. The numbers of persons issued with a PND for this offence, which was added to the scheme in April 2005, by police force area, from 2005 to 2007 are shown in table 2.
	Data for 2008 will be available very soon.
	
		
			  Table 1: The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for the offence of sale of alcohol to a drunk person( 1) , by police force area, England and Wales,  2006 - 07( 2,3,4) 
			   Proceeded against  Found guilty 
			  Police force area  2006  2007  2006  2007 
			 Cheshire - 1 - - 
			 Cleveland - 1 - - 
			 Devon and Cornwall - 2 - - 
			 Durham - 1 1 - 
			 Lancashire 1 - - - 
			 South Yorkshire - 2 - - 
			 Thames Valley 1 - 1 - 
			 Total 2 7 1 1 
			 (1) Under the Licensing Act 2003-section 141. (2) Only those areas for which data have been recorded are included in the table. (3) Figures given are on the principal offence basis. (4) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.  Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform-Evidence and Analysis Unit. [Ref: 258-09] 
		
	
	
		
			  Table 2: The number of penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued for sale of alcohol to a drunk person( 1)  under section 141 of the Licensing Act 2003, by police force area, England and Wales, 2005 - 07( 1,2) 
			  Police force area  2005  2006  2007 
			 Avon and Somerset - - 1 
			 Bedfordshire - - - 
			 Cambridgeshire - 1 2 
			 Cheshire - - - 
			 City of London - - - 
			 Cleveland 1 - 4 
			 Cumbria - 6 1 
			 Derbyshire - 1 1 
			 Devon and Cornwall 1 1 2 
			 Dorset - 1 - 
			 Durham - - - 
			 Essex - - 1 
			 Gloucestershire - - - 
			 Greater Manchester - 3 7 
			 Hampshire 1 1 3 
			 Hertfordshire - - - 
			 Humberside - - 1 
			 Kent 2 1 4 
			 Lancashire 4 4 6 
			 Leicestershire 8 2 4 
			 Lincolnshire 1 - - 
			 Merseyside - - 8 
			 Metropolitan Police 3 7 18 
			 Norfolk - - 1 
			 Northamptonshire - - - 
			 Northumbria - - 2 
			 North Yorkshire - 1 - 
			 Nottinghamshire - 1 1 
			 South Yorkshire 1 - - 
			 Staffordshire - 4 2 
			 Suffolk - - 2 
			 Surrey - 1 - 
			 Sussex 7 1 2 
			 Thames Valley - - 2 
			 Warwickshire - - - 
			 West Mercia 2 - 3 
			 West Midlands - 1 - 
			 West Yorkshire 1 1 1 
			 Wiltshire - 3 - 
			 Dyfed Powys - - - 
			 Gwent - - - 
			 North Wales - 5 1 
			 South Wales - - 1 
			 British Transport Police - 1 - 
			 Total 32 47 81 
			 (1) Sale of alcohol to a drunk person was added to the PND Scheme with effect from 4 April 2005. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.  Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform-Evidence and Analysis Unit [IOS 258-09]

Antisocial Behaviour

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 27 October 2009,  Official Report, column 284W, on antisocial behaviour, 
	(1)  which 62 areas have been identified as Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership priorities;
	(2)  how much additional funding his Department is providing to the 62 priority areas to tackle antisocial behaviour.

Alan Johnson: The 62 priority areas are those where perceptions of antisocial behaviour are above 25 per cent. They are:
	Ashfield
	Barking and Dagenham
	Barnsley
	Basildon
	Bassetlaw
	Beckley
	Birmingham
	Blackburn with Darwen
	Bolsover
	Bradford
	Brent
	Broxbourne
	Burnley
	Camden
	Cannock Chase
	Doncaster
	Ealing
	Enfield
	Greenwich
	Hackney
	Hammersmith and Fulham
	Haringey
	Hillingdon
	Hounslow
	Islington
	Knowsley
	Lambeth
	Liverpool
	Luton
	Manchester
	Mansfield
	Medway
	Middlesbrough
	Newham
	North East Lincolnshire
	Nottingham
	Nuneaton and Bedworth
	Oldham
	Pendle
	Portsmouth
	Reading
	Redbridge
	Rochdale
	Rotherham
	Salford
	Sandwell
	Slough
	Southampton
	Southwark
	St. Helens
	Stoke-on-Trent
	Swale
	Tameside
	Tamworth
	Thanet
	Thurrock
	Tower Hamlets
	Wakefield
	Walsall
	Waltham Forest
	Wellingborough
	Wigan
	Home Office Delivery Managers will be visiting every priority area to work with them to assess problems and direct local action plans. These will be monitored on a regular basis and improvements are expected by March 2010. These improvements will be expected to be made within the existing resources allocated to every area under the area-based grant.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many antisocial behaviour orders were issued in  (a) Jarrow constituency,  (b) South Tyneside,  (c) the North East and  (d) UK in each year since their inception.

Alan Campbell: Antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) issued on application to magistrates courts and county courts became available on 1 April 1999. ASBOs made following conviction for a relevant criminal offence at the Crown court and at magistrates courts became available on 2 December 2002. The available information is shown in the table.
	Information collected centrally by the Ministry of Justice on the number of ASBOs issued only counts those ASBOs issued by courts in England and Wales and is not compiled below Criminal Justice System (CJS) area level.
	
		
			  The number of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) issued all courts( 1)  in the North East Government Office Region( 2)  (GOR) and England and Wales, 1 April 1999 to 31 December 2007 
			  Area  Apr1999( 3)( ) Dec . 2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006  2007 
			 North East 22 22 29 55 134 268 176 122 
			 England and Wales 241 350 427 1,349 3,479 4,122 2,705 2,299 
			 (1) Includes ASBOs issued on application by magistrates' courts acting in their civil capacity and county courts, which became available on 1 April 1999 and ASBOs made following conviction for a relevant criminal offence at the Crown Court and at magistrates' courts (acting in their criminal capacity), which became available on 2 December 2002. (2) The North East Government Office Region consists of the Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria Criminal Justice System (CJS) areas. (3) From 1 April 1999.  Notes: 1: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 2: Previously issued data have been revised. Prepared by Justice Statistics Analytical Services.

Crime: Alcoholic Drinks

Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many alcohol-related incidents were recorded by each basic command unit of Hampshire Constabulary in each of the last five years.

Alan Campbell: holding answer 25 January 2010
	The data requested on incidents are not collected centrally. However, the British Crime Survey provides figures for violent incidents where the victim believes the offender was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This information is provided in the following table:
	
		
			  Violent incidents where the victim believed the offender(s) to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, BCS, 1995 to 2008-09 
			  Percentages and numbers (Thousand) 
			 Statistically significant 
			   1995  199 7  2001-02  2002-03  2003-04  2004-05  2005-06  2006-07  2007-08  2008-09  1995 to 2008-09  2007-08 to 2008-09 
			  Proportion of all violent incidents( 1) 
			  Offender(s) perceived to be under the influence of:( 2) 
			 Alcohol 41 43 48 45 51 49 45 46 46 47 * - 
			 Drugs 16 18 21 20 20 18 23 17 19 17 - - 
			 Unweighted 1,078 915 1,285 1,397 1,398 1,455 1,512 1,658 1,477 1,449 - - 
			  
			  N umber of violent incidents (Thousand) 
			  Offender(s) perceived to be under the influence of:( 2) 
			 Alcohol 1,656 1,457 1,244 1,177 1,299 1.105 1,023 1,087 971 973 * - 
			 Drugs 655 603 549 544 474 390 531 398 390 334 * - 
			 Unweighted 16,348 14,947 32,824 36,479 37,931 45,120 47,729 47,138 46,903 46,220 - - 
			 (1) 'All violence' includes wounding, assault with minor injury, assault without injury and robbery. See Section 5 of Volume 2 for more information.  (2 )Questions asked only if the victim was able to say something about the offender(s), and if there was more than one offender, victims were asked if any of the offenders were perceived to be under the influence. Questions were not asked if any offenders were perceived to be under school age.  (3) For an explanation of year-labels see 'Conventions used in figures and tables' at the start of this volume. 
		
	
	Taken from table 3.16 at the following link:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb1109chap3.xls

Crime: Urban Areas

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his policy is on the provision of SOS night-time emergency buses in urban centres; and how much he plans to allocate to  (a) revenue expenditure and  (b) capital expenditure on vehicles for such services in 2010-11.

Alan Campbell: The Home Office does not have a policy for providing night-time emergency busses in urban areas and does not have plans for directly funding them. However we are aware that a small number of local areas (including Bournemouth, Torbay, Brighton and Hove and Thanet) have used part of their 2009-10 Home Office alcohol partnership funding for safebus/safe space initiatives. This £1.5million programme is targeted at our 50 alcohol priority areas. These local areas can bid for funding for initiatives after identifying how to tackle alcohol related harm in the means most appropriate to the area and the problem.

Departmental Internet

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department has a YouTube channel.

Alan Johnson: The Home Office has a channel on the YouTube video sharing website:
	http://www.youtube.com/user/ukhomeoffice

Drugs: Rehabilitation

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people on the drug rehabilitation requirements scheme have been imprisoned for breaching the conditions of the scheme; and how many people have remained addicted to drugs after participating in the scheme.

Alan Campbell: Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2008 records that 4,429 offenders were received into prison in 2008 following breach of a community order and 5,769 following breach of a suspended sentence order. However, these data cannot be broken down by type of requirement to identify the number of offenders imprisoned following breach of a drug rehabilitation requirement (DRR).(1)
	The imposition of a custodial sentence is one of a range of options available to the courts if they are satisfied that an offender has failed to comply with any requirements of a community order or a suspended sentence order without a reasonable excuse. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 specifies that a court may only impose a custodial sentence following breach of a community order with a DRR where the offender has wilfully and persistently failed to comply with the requirements of the order.
	The National Offender Management Service does not collect data on the offenders who have been imprisoned following breach of a DRR. However, the proportion of offenders successfully completing these orders has risen significantly from 28 per cent. in 2003 to 47 per cent. in 2008-09.
	While all drug treatment delivered through the criminal justice system aims ultimately for abstinence, drug misuse can lead to chronic relapsing behaviour which may take years to address successfully and often beyond the duration of a sentence or order. No central record is kept of the number of those completing DRRs free from drug misuse. A recent research study(2) carried out in the community showed that sustaining heroin and crack cocaine users in treatment is effective at reducing misuse and in a significant proportion of cases leads to abstinence.
	Figures from 2007-08 show 85 per cent. of offenders on a DRR being retained in treatment for more than 12 weeks, which is the minimum treatment period reported by the National Treatment Agency and the Drug Interventions Programme as having some impact on drug use and offending.
	(1) These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.
	(2) Marsden, J., et al. (2009) Effectiveness of community treatments for heroin and crack cocaine addiction in England: a prospective, in-treatment cohort study. The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9697, Pages 1262-1270.

Firearms

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many guns were seized by the police in each year since 1997.

Alan Campbell: These data are not collected centrally.

Firearms

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to reduce the availability of guns.

Alan Campbell: The Home Office and ACPO have jointly funded the establishment of the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) with an investment of £5.5 million. NABIS has made significant contributions to police and UKBA operations disrupting firearms supply, linking over 350 incidents in which firearms have been discharged and receiving over 1,000 items for analysis.
	Through the Tackling Knives Action Programme the Home Office is also working with local partners to tackle gun and gang crime. This programme has included a consultation on strengthening controls on deactivated firearms in order to reduce their availability to criminals for use in crime. We are now analysing responses.
	The Home Office has implemented a range of strict controls on the lawful possession of firearms, including a ban on handguns. Chief officers of police must be satisfied that an applicant has a good reason for wanting a particular firearm and is fit to be entrusted with it before issuing a certificate.

Human Trafficking

Anthony Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases in respect of potential victims of trafficking who have been referred to the National Referral Mechanism since 1 April 2009 no decision on  (a) reasonable and  (b) conclusive grounds has been made.

Alan Campbell: From the cases referred into the National Referral Mechanism between 1 April 2009 and 31 December 2009, as of the latter date 70 were awaiting the Reasonable Grounds Decision and 245 were awaiting the Conclusive Grounds Decision.

Human Trafficking: Children

Anthony Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children have been referred to the human trafficking national referral mechanism by  (a) police and  (b) the UK Border Agency since 1 April 2009.

Alan Campbell: holding answer 25 January 2010
	The police have referred 49 children and the UK Border Agency referred 39 children in the period, 1 April to 31 December 2009.

Human Trafficking: Children

Anthony Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which local authorities have referred children to the human trafficking national referral mechanism since its inception.

Alan Campbell: holding answer 25 January 2010
	 The names of local authorities who have made referrals of children to the UK Human Trafficking Centre from the period 1 April to 31 December 2009 are listed as follows.
	 Local authorities referring children to the competent authority from 1 April 2009 to 31 December 2009
	Birmingham City Council
	Brent Council
	Cardiff Council
	Conwy Social Services
	Doncaster Council
	Glasgow City Council
	Hampshire County Council
	Haringey Social Services
	Harrow Children Services
	Hertfordshire County Council
	Hillingdon Local Authority
	Islington Social Services
	Kent Social Services
	Leicester City Council
	London Borough of Camden
	Manchester City Council
	Moray Council
	Newham Youth Offending Team
	Newport Local Authority
	Norfolk County Council
	Nottingham City Council
	Portsmouth City Council
	Sheffield City Council
	Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
	Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
	Suffolk County Council
	Surrey County Council
	Wakefield Council
	West Sussex County Council

Knives: Crime

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to reduce the numbers of knives used in street crime.

Alan Campbell: Since June 2008, the Government have committed over £12 million to the Tackling Knives Action Programme, initially to tackle teenage knife crime, and since, March 2009, to tackle knife crime and tackle the minority of young people who commit serious violence, regardless of the weapon involved. Our comprehensive approach to tackling serious youth violence ranges from enforcement action, which shows young people that there are clear consequences to violent behaviour, through to prevention work, which brings about long-term change. One aspect of this has been to provide police forces with additional search equipment. We have provided 1,150 extra search arches and wands to police forces to take knives off the streets and reassure the public. As a result of on-going activity, police forces tell us that there are encouraging signs that knife carrying is reducing among young people.

Knives: Retail Trade

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions he has had with representatives of retail businesses on the sale of knives.

Alan Campbell: On 17 November 2008, I chaired a roundtable with retailers (Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, Co-op, Woolworths, Marks  Spencer, Argos/Homebase, TK Maxx, Next, Poundstretcher, Wilkinsons, Matalan, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Debenhams, BHS, BQ and Ikea) to agree a six point commitment to limit the sale of knives to under 18s.
	This included the following commitments:
	1. To provide training and support to staff on the sale of knives, and keep a register of completion of training;
	2. To clearly display to the public signs stating that knives are not for sale to under-18's;
	3. To ensure that display and storage of knives minimises the risk of theft;
	4. To ensure till prompts are in place to remind staff at point of sale;
	5. To enhance safeguards on internet sales to address attempted underage sale of knives;
	6. To monitor attempted underage sales and share information with local police and other partners.
	The six point commitment, agreed with 21 retailers, was launched by the previous Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Jacqui Smith), on 5 February 2009. We continue to monitor the impact of this agreement as part of the broader TKAP programme.

National Identity Register

Francis Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer to Lord Stoddart of Swindon of 14 October 2009,  Official Report,  House of Lords, columns 26-27WA, on the National Identity Register, what estimate has been made of the number of citizens who will have their fingerprints stored on the National Identity Register by 2022.

Meg Hillier: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given on 25 January 2010,  Official Report, column 648W.

Nosratollah Tajik

Andrew MacKinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions his Department has had with representatives of banking and financial institutions in respect of the request from the United States for the extradition of Nosratollah Tajik; and if he will make a statement.

Meg Hillier: There have been no such discussions.

Nosratollah Tajik

Andrew MacKinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what occasions there have been discussions with representatives of other Government departments on the request from the United States for the extradition of Nosratollah Tajik; and if he will make a statement.

Meg Hillier: Officials have discussed this case on a number of occasions with representatives of other Government Departments.
	Mr. Tajik has exhausted all avenues of appeal against extradition under the Extradition Act 2003. He has made further representations in relation to his health; the Home Secretary has no general discretion in relation to the case and accordingly the sole issue which falls to be considered is whether it would be a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights to extradite.

Powers of Entry

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  for what reason the Government have not introduced a new liberty test on powers of entry;
	(2)  how many  (a) new and  (b) amended powers of entry have been created by legislation sponsored by his Department since 1997.

David Hanson: All powers of entry are enacted through legislation and subject to parliamentary scrutiny. The following table sets out new or amended powers of entry introduced by the Home Department and enacted by Parliament since 1997. We will be publishing proposals later this year on raising public awareness and accountability on the exercise of entry powers by those other than the police or security services.
	
		
			  Home Department: Enactments by Parliament since 1997 containing a power of entry 
			  Number  Year  Legislation  Number of entry powers  New/amendment to existing power 
			 1 1997 Police Act 1997 1 New 
			 2 2006/750 Police Act 1997-Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) (Registration) Regulations 2006 1 New 
			 3 1998/472 The Secure Training Centre Rules 1998 (1998/472) 1 New 
			 4 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 2 Amendment 
			 5 2000 Terrorism Act 2000 8 New 
			 6 2001 Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 3 New 
			 7 2001 Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 1 New 
			 8 2001 Private Security Industry Act 2001 1 New 
			 9 2001 Vehicles (Crime) Act 2001 4 New 
			 10 2002 Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2002 4 Amendment 
			 11 2002 Police Reform Act 2002 1 Amendment 
			 12 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 5 Amendment 
			 13 2003 Crime (International Co-operation) Act 2003 2 Amendment 
			 14 2003 Extradition Act 2003 5 New 
			 15 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 1 New 
			 16 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 1 New 
			 17 2006 Terrorism Act 2006 1 New 
			 18 2007 UK Borders Act 1 New 
			 19 2007/200 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Application to Revenue  Customs) Order 200 1 Amendment 
			 20 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 3 New 
			 21 2008/296 European Communities Act 1972-Controlled Drugs (Drug Precursors)(Community External Trade) Regulations 2008 1 New 
			 22 2009 Policing and Crime Act 2009 1 Amendment 
			 23 2009 Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 4 New

Religious Buildings: Registration

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst of 7 January 2010,  Official Report, column 524W, on religious buildings: registration, if he will make an assessment of the likely effect on the Registrar General's power to refuse applications for registration as a place of worship of the provisions proposed in the Equality Bill.

Meg Hillier: The Secretary of State does not believe that the Equality Bill will affect the way in which the Registrar General considers the certification of a building as a place of meeting for religious worship under The Places of Religious Worship Act 1855. As detailed in the answer to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) of 7 January 2010,  Official Report, column 524W, in his assessment of such certifications, the Registrar General considers the judgment in the 1970 Segerdal case which defines a place of which the principal use is a place where people come together as a congregation or assembly to worship God or do reverence to a deity. The Secretary of State does not believe that the definition of religion or belief in the Equality Bill (which replicates the existing definition) will impact on existing case-law such as Segerdal.

Surveillance

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the compatibility of  (a) his Department's programme of intercepting communications data and  (b) the proposed Interception Modernisation Programme with the requirements of the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009.

Alan Johnson: The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 completed the transposition of Directive 2006/24/EC on the retention of communications data. Since 2005, when the directive was negotiated, there has been continuous and innovative development of communications services and applications, many of which are not covered by current data retention legislation. This has already started to undermine the capabilities of our law enforcement and national security agencies to protect the public.
	Last year a public consultation, Protecting the public in a changing communications environment, sought views on proposals to maintain investigative capabilities in the face of these challenges. In response to that consultation the Government are developing its proposed approach, continuing to work closely with communications service providers to minimise as far as possible any impact on them, and ensuring that any new proposals include strong safeguards to minimise the potential for abuse, and to maintain the security and integrity of the data.

Terrorism: Internet

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been  (a) arrested and  (b) convicted for offences relating to comments posted on social networking websites under counter-terrorism legislation.

Alan Johnson: The Home Office does not hold statistics which are recorded in this way. However, the Home Office does collate statistics on the number of terrorism arrests and convictions and these are included in a bulletin published for the first time on 13 May 2009 (Statistics on Terrorism Arrests and Outcomes Great Britain 11 September 2001 to 31 March 2008). The first edition of the bulletin is available at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb0409.pdf
	The second issue of the bulletin was published on 26 November 2009 and is available via the following link:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb1809.pdf

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Affordable Housing

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 20 July 2009,  Official Report, columns 816-18W, on housing: low incomes, if he will publish the figures for takeup of Open Market Homebuy from the second quarter of 2009-10 to the date of closure of the scheme to new applicants.

John Healey: Open Market HomeBuy was a scheme with two separate products, MyChoice HomeBuy and Ownhome. The latest dates for which new applications were taken for MyChoice HomeBuy were in mid May 2009, and in early July 2009 for Ownhome.
	Provisional data from April to September 2009 for Open Market HomeBuy published by the Homes and Communities Agency show 3,194 completions in that period.

Affordable Housing: Construction

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many affordable homes had been built as a result of each Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder at 1 April 2009; how many were planned to be built in each Pathfinder area in 2009-10; and how many additional affordable homes he now expects to be built as a result of the release of additional resources in July 2009.

Ian Austin: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to him on 21 October 2009,  Official Report, column 1503-1504W. Data differentiating affordable and private new build as a result of HMR funding are not yet held in a readily available format. The HMR programme particularly focuses on the refurbishment and renewal of existing stock and attracting developer interest to their areas, and it is for individual Pathfinders to decide on which activities to focus taking into account the stage of the regeneration process in their areas.

Construction: Company Liquidations

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many construction firms have gone into liquidation or ceased trading for other reasons in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area or the lowest geographical area for which data are available.

Ian Lucas: I have been asked to reply.
	The available statistics for insolvencies in the construction industry are shown in Table 1. The smallest geographical area for which these statistics are available is England and Wales as a whole. We do not have information relating to firms which have ceased trading for other reasons.
	Responsibility for statistics relating to business start-ups and closures (births and deaths) giving numbers of companies that have ceased trading (liquidations form part of these) has moved from the Department for Business to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
	
		
			  Table 1: Company liquidations in England and Wales in the construction sector 1999-2008( 1,2) 
			   Liquidations 
			 1999 1,529 
			 2000 1,474 
			 2001 1,509 
			 2002 1,840 
			 2003 1,728 
			 2004 1,653 
			 2005 1,775 
			 2006(3) 1,409 
			 2007(4) 972 
			 2008 2,702 
			 (1) Including compulsory liquidations and creditors' voluntary liquidations.  (2) From July 2007, construction is defined within the SIC2003; up to September 2006 it is defined within the Insolvency Trade Classification. No statistics by sector are available from Q4 2006 to Q2 2007 inclusive due to the change in industry classification.  (3) January to September only.  (4) July to December only.

Council Housing: Finance

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the written ministerial statement of 30 June 2009,  Official Report, columns 7-10WS, on housing, what the  (a) housing debt and  (b) servicing costs were in each of the 202 local authorities referred to in each of the last three years; and when he expects to conclude his review of council housing finance and the future of local council housing.

John Healey: I have arranged for a table showing the level of notional housing debt, and associated assumed interest costs, for each local authority with housing stock for each of the three years 2007-08 to 2009-10, to be placed in the Library.
	On 16 December 2009, I announced that the responses to the consultation on proposals for the reform of council housing finance showed overwhelming support for the principle of self-financing. I intend to make a further announcement in February which will confirm the progress we have made on self-financing and set out more details of the proposals. I also intend to publish a summary of responses to the consultation in due course.

Homes and Communities Agency: Finance

Mark Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the reason for the cost of the finance function of the Homes and Communities Agency referred to in the publication Benchmarking the Back Office: Central Government; and if he will make a statement.

John Healey: The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the Department's largest delivery agency, responsible for a range of investment activity which requires professional financial input to appraisal and decision making. As such, HCA's corporate services are designed to support delivery of capital programme spend, which was excluded from the calculation of total operating costs for this exercise. It should be noted that the cost of finance function data published includes data from HCA's predecessor bodies.

Housing: Construction

William Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of progress towards his Department's target of three million new homes by 2026; and what estimate he has made of the sum to be contributed by the Government towards such building.

John Healey: The Department does not publish estimates of future levels of house building.

Shared Ownership Schemes: Staffordshire

William Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people resident in Staffordshire have successfully applied for each of his Department's shared equity housing schemes.

John Healey: The Department does not itself directly take steps to match demand for shared ownership products with prospective clients. CLG works in partnership with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to deliver its HomeBuy products.
	The following list gives details of the number of households in Staffordshire who have applied for HCA's HomeBuy products.
	
		
			   Number 
			 HomeBuy Direct 83 
			 HomeBuy Newbuild 46 
			 HomeBuy Open Market 28 
			 Home Ownership for people with Long Term Disabilities 3 
			 Rent to Intermediate 7 
			 Rent to HomeBuy 9 
			 Total 176

Stress

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will place in the Library a copy of the advice issued to departmental staff on stress recognition and management.

Barbara Follett: A copy of the advice issued to departmental staff on stress recognition and management has been placed in the Library.

Tenancy Deposit Schemes

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many  (a) representations and  (b) complaints his Department has received in relation to tenancy deposit schemes in each of the last three years; and how many have been received in 2009-10 to date.

Ian Austin: We do not hold this information.

CABINET OFFICE

Breast Cancer

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people were diagnosed with breast cancer in  (a) Torbay constituency,  (b) Torbay local authority area,  (c) the South West and  (d) England in each year since 1997.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated January 2010:
	As Director General for Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people were diagnosed with breast cancer in (a) Torbay constituency, (b) Torbay local authority area, (c) the South West and (d) England in each year since 1997.
	The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer (incidence) are for the year 2007. Please note that these numbers may not be the same as the number of people diagnosed with cancer, because one person may be diagnosed with more than one cancer.
	Table 1 provides the numbers of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer for (a) Torbay parliamentary constituency, (b) Torbay unitary authority, (c) South West government office region and (d) England, for each year from 1997 to 2007.
	
		
			  Table 1. Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer,( 1)  persons,( 2)  (a) Torbay parliamentary constituency, (b) Torbay unitary authority, (c) South West government office region and (d) England,( 3 ) 1997 to 2007( 4) 
			  Persons 
			   Torbay constituency  Torbay local authority  South West  England 
			 1997 87 122 3,875 33,659 
			 1998 92 122 4,059 34,117 
			 1999 127 173 4,751 35,778 
			 2000 86 128 4,192 35,050 
			 2001 93 119 4,439 35,787 
			 2002 84 113 4,251 35,631 
			 2003 84 103 4,655 37,874 
			 2004 102 140 4,646 38,120 
			 2005 106 142 4,728 38,970 
			 2006 89 117 4,769 38,816 
			 2007 100 137 4,789 38,291 
			 (1) Breast cancer is coded as C50 in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). (2) Around 99 per cent. of breast cancers cases are in women. (3) Based on boundaries as of 2009. (4 )Newly diagnosed cases registered in each calendar year.

Breast Cancer

Lindsay Hoyle: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many people resident in  (a) Chorley constituency and  (b) Lancashire county council area have been diagnosed with breast cancer in each year since 1997.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated January 2010:
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people resident in  (a) Chorley constituency and  (b) Lancashire county authority area have been diagnosed with breast cancer in each year since 1997.
	The latest available figures for newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer (incidence) are for the year 2007. Please note that these numbers may not be the same as the number of people diagnosed with cancer, because one person may be diagnosed with more than one cancer.
	The table attached provides the numbers of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer for  (a) Chorley parliamentary constituency and  (b) Lancashire county, for each year from 1997 to 2007.
	
		
			  Table 1. Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer( 1) , persons( 2) , (a) Chorley parliamentary constituency and (b) Lancashire county( 3) , 1997 to 2007( 4) 
			   Number of persons 
			   Chorley  Lancashire 
			 1997 60 726 
			 1998 62 769 
			 1999 75 811 
			 2000 81 822 
			 2001 62 846 
			 2002 78 820 
			 2003 77 837 
			 2004 86 898 
			 2005 86 896 
			 2006 78 931 
			 2007 87 960 
			 (1) Breast cancer is coded as C50 in the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) (2) Around 99 per cent of breast cancers cases are in women (3) Based on boundaries as of 2009 (4) Newly diagnosed cases registered in each calendar year

Construction

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many construction firm start ups there have been in each of the last 10 years, broken down by local authority area or the lowest geographical area for which data are available.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 27 January 2010:
	.
	Annual statistics on business births, deaths and survival are available for 2002 onwards from the ONS release on Business Demography at:
	www.statistics.gov.uk
	The attached table contains the latest statistics available on business births for the construction industry by district, counties and unitary authorities within region and country. A copy has been placed in the Library of the House.

Construction

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate her Department has made of the number of people seeking jobs in the construction industry.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 27 January 2010:
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate has been made of the number of people seeking jobs in the construction industry. (313980).
	The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics on the number of people seeking jobs based on claims for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA). The JSA system collects information on the occupation sought by claimants, rather than the industry that they are seeking a job in.
	For this question we have defined occupations in the construction industry using the Standard Occupational Classification 2000 as: skilled construction and building trades; construction plant operatives; and elementary construction occupations. Other occupations that may have some association with the construction industry have not been included. Individuals who are not claiming JSA but are seeking jobs in the construction industry are also not included.
	In December 2009 the number of JSA claimants who were seeking jobs in the occupations listed above was 210,260.
	National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
	http://www.nomisweb.co.uk

Death: Birmingham

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the 10 most frequently recorded causes of death for  (a) men,  (b) women,  (c) boys under the age of 18 years and  (d) girls under the age of 18 years were in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency in each of the last five years.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 27 January 2010:
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the 10 most frequently recorded causes of death for (a) men, (b) women, (c) boys under the age of 18 years and (d) girls under the age of 18 years were in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency in each of the last five years. (312783)
	The tables attached present the ten most frequently recorded causes of death(1), for (a) males aged 18 years and over (Table 1) and (b) females aged 18 years and over (Table 2), in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath parliamentary constituency, for the years 2004 to 2008 (the latest year available).
	Due to the small numbers of deaths of (c) boys under the age of 18 years and (d) girls under the age of 18 years, equivalent information for frequently recorded causes of death could not be produced.
	Individual causes of death are coded by ONS using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). The causes of death shown in the tables are groups of codes designed for the tabulation of deaths according to 'main' causes.(2)
	(1) In some years, more than ten causes of death are presented where the numbers of deaths were the same as those for the tenth most frequent cause.
	(2) Griffiths, C, Rooney, C, and Brock, A. (2005) 'Leading causes of death in England and Wales-how should we group causes?' Health Statistics Quarterly 28, 6-17.
	
		
			  Table 1. Most frequent causes of death classified according to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), males aged 18 years and over, Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath parliamentary constituency, 2004 to 2008( 1,2,3) 
			   Years when this was a main cause of death for males  
			  Cause of death( 4)  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008  ICD-10 Codes 
			 Aortic aneurysm and dissection * - - - - I71 
			 Cerebrovascular diseases * * * * * I60-I69 
			 Chronic lower respiratory diseases * * * * * J40-J47 
			 Cirrhosis and other diseases of liver - * - * - K70-K76 
			 Dementia and Alzheimer's disease * * * * * F01, F03, G30 
			 Diabetes * * * * * E10-E14 
			 Diseases of the urinary system - - - - * N00-N39 
			 Heart failure and complications and ill-defined heart disease - - * - - I50-I51 
			 Hypertensive diseases - * - - - I10-I15 
			 Influenza and pneumonia * * * * * J10-J18 
			 Ischaemic heart diseases * * * * * I20-I25 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of colon, sigmoid, rectum and anus * * - * * C18-C21 
			 Malignant (cancer) neoplasm of oesophagus - - - - * C15 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of pancreas * - * - - C25 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of prostate * * * * - C61 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of stomach - * - * - C16 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of trachea, bronchus and lung * * * * * C33-C34 
			 Malignant neoplasms (cancer) of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue - - - *  C81-C96 
			 Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use - * - - - F10-F19 
			 (1) Most frequent causes of death recorded as the underlying cause in male deaths registered in the year in question. These causes accounted for 64 per cent. of all male deaths in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath parliamentary constituency between 2004 and 2008. (2) Cause of death in England and Wales is defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). (3) Based on boundaries as of 2009. (4) The words in brackets have been added for clarity and are not part of the International Classification of Diseases. 
		
	
	
		
			  Table  2 . Most frequent causes of death classified according to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10),  females  aged 18 years and over, Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath parliamentary constituency, 2004 to 2008( 1,2,3) 
			   Years when this was a main cause of death for  fe males  
			  Cause of death( 4)  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008  ICD-10 Codes 
			 Accidental falls * - - - - W00-W19 
			 Cerebrovascular diseases * * * * * I60-I69 
			 Chronic lower respiratory diseases * * * * * J40-J47 
			 Dementia and Alzheimer's disease * * * * * F01, F03, G30 
			 Diabetes * - * * * E10-E14 
			 Diseases of the urinary system * * * * * N00-N39 
			 Heart failure and complications and ill-defined heart disease * * - * - I50-I51 
			 Influenza and pneumonia * * * * * J10-J18 
			 Ischaemic heart diseases * * * * * I20-I25 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of colon, sigmoid, rectum and anus - - * * * C18-C21 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of ovary - * - - - C56 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of pancreas - - - * - C25 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of stomach * - - - - C16 
			 Malignant neoplasm (cancer) of trachea, bronchus and lung * * * * * C33-C34 
			 Malignant neoplasms (cancer) of breast * * * * * C50 
			 Malignant neoplasms (cancer) of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue - - - * - C81-C96 
			 (1) Most frequent causes of death recorded as the underlying cause in female deaths registered in the year in question. These causes accounted for 63 per cent. of all female deaths in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath parliamentary constituency between 2004 and 2008. (2) Cause of death in England and Wales is defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). (3) Based on boundaries as of 2009. (4) The words in brackets have been added for clarity and are not part of the International Classification of Diseases.

Departmental Manpower

Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many layers of management reporting from the most senior to the most junior there are in her Department and its agency; how many officials are employed in each such layer; and how much was spent on salaries and associated employment costs of staff at each such layer in the latest year for which information is available.

Angela Smith: For information concerning how many officials are employed in each layer of management reporting in the latest year for which information is available and the number of management layers, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office (Tessa Jowell) to the right hon. Member for Horsham (Mr. Maude) on 25 January 2010,  Official Report, column 661W.
	Information on how much was spent on salaries and associated employment costs of staff at each such layer of management reporting in the latest year for which information is available is detailed in the following table.
	
		
			  Grade  Total employment cost in 2008-09 (£) 
			 Senior civil service 26,130,033 
			   
			  Other management  
			 Band A (Grades 6 and 7) 20,179,844 
			 B2 (senior/higher executive officer) 14,742,107 
			 B1 (executive officer) 8,589,414 
			 Administrative grades 5,064,377

Disadvantaged

Francis Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office which of the 20 recommendations of the Better Information report from the Social Exclusion Policy Action Team 18 have  (a) been implemented and  (b) not been implemented.

Barbara Follett: I have been asked to reply.
	Progress against the PAT 18 recommendations can be found in Annex A of the Neighbourhood Statistics Service Annual Report to Ministers 2005-06. All 20 of the recommendations made by PAT 18 have been met.
	http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/images/NeSS-Report_2005-06_tcm97-51089.pdf

Electorate: Clwyd

Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many electors there were in each ward in  (a) Vale of Clwyd and  (b) Bristol South constituency in each year since 1980.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Dennis Roberts, January 2010:
	The Director General for the Office for National Statistics has been asked to reply to your question asking how many electors there were in each ward in (a) Vale of Clwyd and (b) Bristol South constituency in each year since 1980. I am replying in his absence. (312893)
	Table 1 shows the number of people who were registered to vote in parliamentary elections for each ward in the Vale of Clwyd constituency from 1997 to 2006. Table 2 shows the number of people who were registered to vote in parliamentary elections for each ward in the Bristol South constituency from 1988 to 2008.
	ONS does not publish ward level figures on parliamentary electors. Data have been provided by the Boundary Commissions for England and for Wales, who collate this information for their own purposes. The Vale of Clwyd constituency did not exist prior to 1997. It was proposed by the Boundary Commission for Wales's Fourth Periodic Review in 1995 and came into effect with the General Election of May 1997. The number of people registered to vote in parliamentary elections for each ward is not collated prior to 1988 for wards in England. The latest available figures are for 2006 for wards in Wales and 2008 for wards in England.
	
		
			  Table 1 :  Number of parliamentary electors registered to vote in each ward in Vale of Clwyd, 1997  to  2006( 1) 
			   1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006 
			 Vale of Clwyd(2) 52,348 51,326 50,612 51,153 51,320 49,111 50,535 52,232 53,091 54,706 
			
			 Bodelwyddan 1,402 1,397 1,335 1,410 1,417 1,387 1,391 1,415 1,523 1,540 
			 Denbigh Central 1,329 1,309 1,275 1,299 1,262 1,164 1,301 1,310 1,310 1,348 
			 Denbigh Lower 3,187 3,140 3,162 3,108 3,201 3,211 3,231 3,325 3,373 3,407 
			 Denbigh Upper/Henllan 2,467 2,489 2,431 2,420 2,385 2,275 2,368 2,376 2,416 2,499 
			 Dyserth 1,846 1,848 1,809 1,894 1,902 1,741 1,766 1,815 1,867 1,931 
			 Llandyrnog 976 1,013 991 1,019 1,010 1,034 1,049 1,064 1,066 1,082 
			 Meliden 1,553 2,685 2,635 2,670 2,659 2,550 2,598 2,664 2,666 2,759 
			 Prestatyn Central 2,681 2,983 2,937 3,001 3,013 2,883 2,881 3,006 3,073 3,173 
			 Prestatyn East 3,010 1,544 1,451 1,498 1,507 1,444 1,481 1,518 1,538 1,560 
			 Prestatyn North 4,114 3,955 3,980 3,988 4,004 3,896 4,141 4,408 4,495 4,655 
			 Prestatyn South West 2,551 2,489 2,493 2,518 2,481 2,502 2,556 2,638 2,625 2,735 
			 Rhuddlan 3,210 3,130 3,127 3,156 3,202 2,679 2,724 2,760 2,808 2,916 
			 Rhyl East 3,677 3,578 3,502 3,590 3,595 3,486 3,552 3,620 3,735 3,737 
			 Rhyl South 3,002 3,013 3,030 2,996 2,995 2,895 2,943 3,005 3,013 3,082 
			 Rhyl South East 4,989 4,963 4,880 5,094 5,192 5,208 5,511 5,672 5,707 5,915 
			 Rhyl South West 3,699 3,708 3,662 3,664 3,607 3,205 3,433 3,534 3,567 3,573 
			 Rhyl West 3,428 3,078 3,000 2,750 2,761 2,464 2,457 2,777 2,960 3,317 
			 St. Asaph East 1,307 1,301 1,295 1,320 1,329 1,313 1,319 1,320 1,323 1,369 
			 St. Asaph West 1,248 1,153 1,116 1,201 1,178 1,155 1,179 1,282 1,288 1,322 
			 Trefnant 1,489 1,402 1,375 1,409 1,444 1,420 1,440 1,486 1,502 1,524 
			 Tremeirchion 1,183 1,148 1,126 1,148 1,176 1,199 1,214 1,237 1,236 1,262 
			 (1) These figures refer to the number of people who would have been entitled to vote if an election had been held on 1 December. (2) The Vale of Clwyd constituency was proposed by the Boundary Commission for Wales' Fourth Periodic Review in 1995 and came into effect with the General Election of May 1997. Prior to that date the wards were divided between the then existing parliamentary constituencies of Clwyd North West constituency, Clwyd South West constituency and Delyn constituency.  Sources: Office for National Statistics Boundary Commission for Wales 
		
	
	
		
			  Table 2 :  Number of  p arliamentary electors registered to vote in each ward in Bristol South, 1988 to 2008( 1) 
			   1988  1989  1990  1991  1992  1993  1994  1995  1996  1997  1998 
			 Bristol South 67,872 65,981 65,026 65,387 64,810 63,790 63,517 63,017 63,028 72,834 72,812 
			 
			 Bedminster 9,036 8,941 8,841 8,782 8,670 8,530 8,529 8,481 8,481 8,517 8,584 
			 Bishopsworth 7,937 7,700 7,578 7,519 7,474 7,439 7,325 7,186 7,138 7,108 7,072 
			 Filwood 7,505 7,078 6,958 7,134 7,076 6,829 6,884 6,787 6,756 6,593 6,568 
			 Hartcliffe 8,697 8,473 8,350 8,282 8,277 8,236 8,125 7,929 7,756 7,608 7,544 
			 Hengrove(3) - - - - - - - - - 9,909 9,969 
			 Knowle 7,899 7,671 7,565 7,667 7,541 7,495 7,362 7,281 7,291 7,301 7,347 
			 Southville 8,135 7,951 7,745 7,896 7,720 7,445 7,600 7,719 7,920 8,170 8,094 
			 Whitchurch Park 8,573 8,317 8,224 8,237 8,266 8,196 7,967 7,945 7,870 7,771 7,760 
			 Windmill Hill 10,090 9,850 9,765 9,870 9,786 9,620 9,725 9,689 9,816 9,857 9,874 
		
	
	
		
			   1999  2000  2001( 2)  2001( 2)  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008 
			 Bristol South 73,189 72,934 72,960 72,992 71,048 71,055 71,458 71,885 73,548 74,127 74,725 
			 
			 Bedminster 8,641 8,581 8,608 8,632 8,479 8,442 8,530 8,520 8,703 9,038 9,390 
			 Bishopsworth 8,574 8,473 8,500 8,431 8,372 8,398 8,418 8,437 8,621 8,583 8,693 
			 Filwood 7,984 8,013 7,950 7,931 7,657 7,660 7,663 7,627 7,992 7,990 7,978 
			 Hartcliffe 8,169 8,164 8,219 8,243 8,020 7,993 8,027 8,150 8,255 8,371 8,379 
			 Hengrove(3) 8,830 8,840 8,794 8,852 8,750 8,763 8,837 8,821 8,837 8,805 8,841 
			 Knowle 5,777 5,783 5,757 5,744 5,717 5,681 5,694 5,652 5,721 5,693 5,644 
			 Southville 8,181 8,031 8,074 8,076 7,790 7,837 7,858 8,123 8,509 8,591 8,720 
			 Whitchurch Park 8,201 8,138 8,151 8,110 7,781 7,797 7,911 7,891 8,086 8,119 8,114 
			 Windmill Hill 8,832 8,911 8,907 8,973 8,482 8,484 8,520 8,664 8,824 8,937 8,966 
			 (1) Figures from 1988 to 2001 refer to the number of parliamentary electors registered to vote on 16 February and from 2001 onwards, those registered to vote on 1 December. (2) Two sets of figures were produced in 2001, the first refer to 16 February, and the second to 1 December. (3) Hengrove ward forms part of Bristol South constituency from 1996 onwards.   Sources: Office for National Statistics Boundary Commission for England

Equal Pay

Theresa May: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what recent estimate she has made of the gender pay gap in each  (a) local authority area,  (b) Government Office region and  (c) parliamentary constituency.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 27 January 2010:
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question requesting the gender pay gap in each (a) local authority area, (b) Government Office region and (c) parliamentary constituency for which information is available. (313266)
	Levels of earnings are estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and are provided for all employees on adult rates of pay, whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. The ASHE, carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. Estimates of the gender pay gap below Government Office Region are not reliable because of small sample sizes and are not provided. Estimates of the gender pay gap for part-time employees at Government Office Region are also not provided for this reason.
	I attach a table showing the gender pay gap in 2009 for median hourly earnings excluding overtime for all and full-time employees on adult rates of pay, whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence, in each Government Office Region.
	
		
			  Gender pay gap for employee jobs( 1) : Government office regions 2009 
			   Median hourly earnings excluding overtime (£)   
			   Men  Women  Gender pay gap  (%) 
			   All  Full-time  Part-time  All  Full-time  Part-time  All  Full-time 
			 North East 11.27 11.75 *7.71 9.00 10.26 7.49 20.1 12.6 
			 North West 11.58 12.14 7.47 9.14 10.90 7.46 21.0 10.2 
			 Yorkshire and the Humber 11.28 11.81 7.46 8.97 10.59 7.41 20.4 10.3 
			 East Midlands 11.49 12.00 7.38 8.79 10.27 7.40 23.5 14.4 
			 West Midlands 11.61 12.11 7.23 9.03 10.50 7.60 22.2 13.3 
			 East 12.00 12.50 8.00 9.28 10.73 7.78 22.7 14.2 
			 London 16.77 17.56 8.99 13.83 15.23 9.74 17.6 13.3 
			 South East 13.22 13.89 7.42 9.93 11.65 8.16 24.9 16.1 
			 South West 11.62 12.06 8.00 9.13 10.25 7.92 21.5 15.0 
			 Wales/Cymru 11.16 11.75 7.26 8.94 10.26 7.39 19.9 12.6 
			 Scotland 11.90 12.39 7.62 9.75 11.33 8.04 18.0 8.5 
			 Northern Ireland 10.63 11.00 *7.72 9.29 10.61 8.06 12.7 3.5 
			 (1) Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. As at April 2009.  Guide to quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV-for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent., we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220.  Key: CV = 5 per cent. * CV 5 per cent. and = 10 per cent.  Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics

Ministers: Training

Francis Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will place in the Library a copy of the Handbook for Ministers prepared by the National School of Government.

Tessa Jowell: This is a matter for the National School of Government. I have asked the principal and chief executive to assist by writing to the right hon. Member.
	 Letter from Rod Clark, dated January 2010:
	In the Written Ministerial Statement to the House on 9 January 2007 (Official Report Col 5WS), the then Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office (Pat McFadden MP) announced that the National School of Government was now a Non Ministerial Department. Consequently, the Minister for the Cabinet Office has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary Questions about the National School of Government.
	The National School operates in a commercial environment with a business model which requires the full operating costs of the department to be recovered from the products and services provided to clients and customers. The Handbook for Ministers will be published in due course with a cover price. At the moment it is still in draft form, and subject to revision; so I have concluded that it would not be appropriate at this stage to place a copy in the Library of the House.
	I am sending you, however, the current draft of the Handbook, and will send you the final version when it is published.

Pay

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the average annual salary was of full-time  (a) members of the academic staff in further education colleges,  (b) teachers in secondary schools,  (c) public sector employees and  (d) private sector employees in (i) cash and (ii) real terms in (A) 1997 and (B) the latest period for which figures are available.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated January 2010:
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the average annual salary was of full-time (a) members of the academic staff in further education colleges, (b) teachers in secondary schools, (c) public sector employees and (d) private sector employees in (i) cash and (ii) real terms in (A) 1997 and (B) the latest period for which figures are available. (312885)
	The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. Annual levels of earnings are estimated from the ASHE, and are provided for employees on adult rates of pay, who have been in the same job for more than a year. ASHE estimates by occupation are based on the Standard Occupation Classification. The public and private sector breakdown is based on the Inter-Departmental Business Register legal status.
	We have attached a table showing the median gross annual earnings for all full-time employees for each of the above occupations and sectors for 1999 and 2009, the earliest and latest periods for which figures are available. For the purposes of calculating real terms estimates we have used the all items Retail Price Index for April of each year.
	
		
			  Median gross annual earnings for full-time employee jobs( 1) : United Kingdom 1999 and 2009 
			  £ 
			   1999 at 1999 prices  1999 at 2009 prices( 2)  2009 
			 Higher and further education teaching professionals(3) 23,400 30,000 - 
			 Secondary (and middle school deemed secondary) education teaching professionals(3) 24,600 31,500 - 
			 Further education teaching professionals(4) - - 32,600 
			 Secondary education teaching professionals(4) - - 36,200 
			 Public sector 19,300 24,700 27,700 
			 Private sector 17,200 22,000 25,000 
			 (1) Full-time employees on adult rates who have been in the same job for more than a year. As at April of each year. (2) Delated using all items RPI for April of each year. (3) Standard Occupation Classification 1990. (4) Standard Occupation Classification 2000.  Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics.

Senior Civil Servants: Pay

Francis Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many civil servants in  (a) Government Departments,  (b) executive agencies and  (c) non-departmental public bodies are in receipt of a salary of over (i) £100,000, (ii) £150,000 and (iii) £200,000.

Angela Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 27 January 2010:
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning, how many civil servants in (a) Government departments, (b) executive agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies are in receipt of a salary of over (i) £100,000, (ii) £150,000 and (iii) £200,000. (312299).
	The requested data are attached at Annex A. The estimates for non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) only include crown NDPBs. Employees of crown NDPBs are civil servants and are counted as being in the Civil Service for the purpose of ONS sector employee headcounts.
	 Annex A
	
		
			  Number of civil servants in (a) Government Departments, (b) executive agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies in receipt of a salary of over (i) £100,000, (ii) £150,000 and (iii) £200,000( 1,2,3)  All employees ,  31 March 2009 
			  Headcount 
			   Over £100,000  Over £150,000  Over £200,000 
			 
			 Government Departments 660 110 10 
			 Executive agencies 140 20 (4)- 
			 Non-departmental public bodies 20 (4)- 0 
			 (1 )Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten. (2) Salaries represent actual annual gross salaries.  (3) Includes ministerial and non-ministerial Government Departments.  (4 )Less than five.   Source:  Annual Civil Service Employment Survey.

CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES

Higher Education: Admissions

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which constituency had the highest number of its residents attending a university in each year since 1997.

David Lammy: I have been asked to reply.
	Using data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), it is possible to identify how many students entered HE from each parliamentary constituency. In each year from 1997/98, with the exception of 2007/08, Bristol West had the highest number of entrants to UK Higher Education Institutions. In 2007/08, Hornsey and Wood Green had the highest number of entrants.
	Care should be exercised when interpreting this analysis as the number of entrants is not matched against the underlying population in these constituencies, and there are cases in which the constituency of the student cannot be established due to missing or invalid postcode information.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Combined Heat and Power: Finance

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what his estimate is of the likely change in the number of jobs in the micro-combined heat and power industry if a feed-in tariff for the sector were to be introduced.

David Kidney: The Government have not produced estimates of job creation in the microCHP industry. Any such estimates would depend on market size, which would depend in part on the nature and level of the support the technology was offered, as well as a range of commercial factors, and the nature of the manufacturing process for the different technologies relative to conventional boilers.

Combined Heat and Power: Finance

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change when he expects to make an announcement on the introduction of a feed-in tariff for micro-combined heat and power.

David Kidney: Treatment of microCHP under the feed-in tariff will be announced as part of the Government's response to the feed-in tariffs consultation. This will be made shortly.

Fuel Poverty: Torbay

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many households in  (a) Torbay constituency and  (b) the UK were in fuel poverty in (i) 2003 and (ii) 2009.

David Kidney: The estimated number of households in fuel poverty in the UK was around 2 million in 2003. The latest figures available show that there were around 4 million fuel poor households in the UK in 2007.
	The most recently available sub-regional split of fuel poverty relates to 2006, and shows that there were around 7,600 fuel poor households in the Torbay constituency. In 2003 there were around 2,800 fuel poor households in the Torbay constituency. The methodology used for the 2006 work differs from that previously used, so care should be taken in comparing the fuel poverty levels in one area between 2003 and 2006.

Microgeneration

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what products have received certification under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme.

Joan Ruddock: All MCS certified products are listed online at:
	http://www.microgenerationcertification.org/Home+and+ Business+Owners/Microgeneration+Products
	Fully MCS certified products are clearly distinguished by MCS serial numbers.
	On these lists, a number of MCS transition products also appear which do not yet have MCS serial numbers. These transition products have access to grants and incentives, having met some of the necessary test criteria and are still undergoing MCS assessment.
	Arrangements relating to these transition products will remain in place until the end of June 2010.

Warm Front Scheme: Birmingham

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many applications from residents of Birmingham to the Warm Front Scheme for  (a) heating,  (b) insulation and  (c) heating and insulation were approved in each of the last three years.

David Kidney: The following table indicates the number of successful applications from residents of Birmingham to the warm front scheme for  (a) heating,  (b) insulation and  (c) heating and insulation in each of the previous years.
	
		
			  Number 
			   2006-07  2007-08  2008-09  2009-10( 1) 
			 Insulation only 4,333 3,937 3,025 2,472 
			 Heating only 3,826 4,255 3,530 2,268 
			 Both 1,988 2,170 2,307 2,081 
			 (1 )Up to and including the 17 January 2010.

TREASURY

Arm's Length Bodies

Francis Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to page 53 of Putting the Frontline First, Cm 7753, what the name is of each of the 750 arm's length bodies sponsored by the Government.

Liam Byrne: Details of arm's length bodies sponsored by central Government are set out in the Cabinet Office publication, Public Bodies. The 752 bodies referred to on page 53 of Putting the Frontline First, CM 7753, includes all bodies named in this publication (Public Bodies 2008) plus executive agencies, non-ministerial Departments and other relevant bodies (e.g. charities and independent bodies) outside the standard Cabinet Office classification. A list of executive agencies and non-ministerial departments can be found on the Cabinet Office website.(1) The 752 bodies referred to in Putting the Frontline First, CM 7753 also excludes independent monitoring boards on the basis that these are multiple bodies, but are of a single type, locally constituted, and staffed by volunteers. Finally, the above lists of bodies will be subject to change as in-year fluctuations occur, which will include the abolition of bodies announced in Putting the Frontline First taking effect once the necessary consultation and legislation has been completed.
	(1) These can be found at:
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ministerial_responsibilities/executive_agencies.aspx
	and
	http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ministerial_responsibilities/non_ministerial_dept.aspx

Bank Services

William Cash: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many retail bank branches there are per head of population.

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Treasury does not collect these data.

Civil Servants: Location

Francis Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which recommendations of the 2004 review of public sector relocation undertaken by Sir Michael Lyons have been implemented.

Liam Byrne: Over the last six years the Government have used Sir Michael Lyons' 2004 review to deliver significant relocation of civil service posts out of London and the south-east.
	The Government have made strong progress in implementing the Lyons review's recommendations. At pre-Budget report 2009, it was announced that the relocations programme has moved nearly 21,000 civil service posts out of London and the south-east-nearly a year ahead of schedule. At Budget 2009, the Government illustrated their commitment to the relocations agenda by agreeing to relocate a further 4,000 posts by March 2010.
	These relocations would not have been possible without the Government's willingness to implement the review's recommendations and to make the necessary investment.
	To ensure that Departments engaged in the relocations programme, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) published mandatory guidance. The guidance (DAO 05/05) ensures that Government Departments, their executive agencies and sponsored bodies, at appropriate property events, provide evidence that illustrates their business need to stay in London.
	To take things further 'Putting the Front Line First: Smarter Government' announced that Ian Smith would lead an independent review on relocations. The review will report in time for Budget and will outline how at least 10 per cent. of all civil service posts currently based in London and the south-east can be relocated in the medium term.

Departmental Training

Francis Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the ministerial correction of 9 November 2009,  Official Report, column 1MC, on the National School of Government, what courses representatives of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit attended at the National School of Government in each of the three listed years.

Liam Byrne: With reference to the ministerial correction of 9 November 2009, the names of the courses that PMDU staff attended at the National School of Government in years 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 were:
	
		
			   Name of training course 
			 2006-07 Executive Coaching Programme 
			 2007-08 No programmes 
			 2008-09 Foundation Course for Senior Entrants

Non-domestic Rates: Garages and Petrol Stations

Lindsay Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will meet representatives of the petrol retail industry to discuss the 2010 rating revaluation.

Ian Pearson: holding answer 25 January 2010
	Treasury and Communities and Local Government Ministers have corresponded with petrol stations' representatives over the 2010 business rates revaluation. Officials in the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) are continuing to meet with the industry to discuss the detail of the scheme used to value petrol forecourts. I do not therefore intend to pursue a meeting at this stage, but remain open to doing so in the future.

Provident Societies: Northern Ireland

Mark Durkan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what directives the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued to non-FSA regulated industrial and provident societies in Northern Ireland on the undertaking of regulated activities by such societies.

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, organisations of any kind which carry on regulated activities, as defined in the Act, anywhere in the UK, are required to seek formal permission from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) unless otherwise legally exempt. The FSA issues advice and guidance to organisations through its website and other means.

Public Sector: Pay

Francis Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer by what mechanism the Government plans to vet public sector employment contracts paying more than £150,000; and whether that mechanism will apply to existing contracts.

Liam Byrne: As announced in the 2009 pre-Budget report (CM 7747) at paragraph 6.50, I shall approve pay levels in excess of £150,000 for appointments subject to ministerial approval (including those within the civil service). Where ministerial approval is not required the Government expect all organisations making appointments on salaries in excess of £150,000 to publicly justify this to the relevant Secretary of State.
	This will apply to new contracts, including cases of reappointment or appointment to a new post.

Public Sector: Pensions

Francis Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what timetable has been set for the publication of the Long Term Public Finance Report's estimate of the liability of Pay-As-You-Go public service occupational pension schemes.

Liam Byrne: The Long Term Public Finance Report published alongside the pre-Budget report on 9 December 2009 estimates the liability of pay-as-you-go public service pension schemes as at 31 March 2008 to be £770 billion.

Snow and Ice

Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the costs to his Department arising from the severe weather conditions in the period 4 January to 18 January 2010; and if he will make a statement.

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: No estimate has been made of any costs arising from the recent severe weather conditions.

Stress

Grant Shapps: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 21 January 2010,  Official Report, column 497W, on industrial health and safety, when his Department produced the document 'Introduction to Stress Awareness and Management'; and what the cost was of producing that document.

Sarah McCarthy-Fry: HMT produced the document entitled 'Introduction to Stress Awareness and Management' in 2009 as part of a package of measures in response to an identified need to manage increased risk to employees from stress and related illnesses. The document cost £0.96p per copy to print, based on a single print run of 2,500 copies. The volume printed was to cover the Treasury Group with sufficient extra to cover new staff for the foreseeable future. The preparation of the content was part of the normal work of the welfare officer and preparation for printing was done in-house by the Department's publishing team. The document is also available to staff in electronic format on the Department's intranet.

VAT: Fuel Oil

Jeffrey M Donaldson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to regulate the price of domestic heating oil following the return in the rate of value added tax to 17.5 per cent.

David Kidney: holding answer 25 January 2010
	I have been asked to reply.
	There is a reduced VAT rate on heating oil for domestic or residential use, relative to the standard rate of 17.5 per cent. of 5 per cent.

WOMEN AND EQUALITY

Human Trafficking

Andrew Pelling: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on policies to reduce levels of human trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Maria Eagle: I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues across Government, through an inter-departmental ministerial group on human trafficking. Measures to tackle trafficking for sexual exploitation include:
	a new offence for buying sex with someone who is subject to exploitative conduct
	work with the Newspaper Society to tackle small ads, resulting in an 80 per cent. decline in advertisements offering sexual services from foreign women since 2007
	a national referral mechanism to improve identification and protection of victims.

Equality Bill: Religious Groups

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent representations she has received on the provisions of the Equality Bill relating to religion or belief; and if she will make a statement.

Michael Jabez Foster: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) earlier today by the Minister for Women and Equality.

National Minimum Wage

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on the effect of the national minimum wage on the gender pay gap.

Maria Eagle: The Minister for Women and Equality regularly meets with her colleagues to discuss how to improve women's position in the labour market, including by tackling the gender pay gap. Between 950,000 and 1 million employees stand to benefit from the latest increases in the national minimum wage (in October 2009), two thirds of whom are estimated to be women.

Discrimination: Older Workers

Gordon Banks: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps the Government Equalities Office is taking to tackle discrimination against older workers.

Lindsay Roy: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps the Government Equalities Office is taking to tackle discrimination against older workers.

Michael Jabez Foster: We know that just because we are past 65 we are not past it.
	Through the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 the Government have ensured that older people have a legal right not to be discriminated against at work, or harassed because of their age. The legislation removed the compulsory retirement beyond the age of 65. The employer must consider this request.
	Research published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on Monday found that the majority of workers over 50 want to continue working beyond the state pension age. We want to give older people flexible options and this is one reason why we have brought forward our review of default retirement age to this year.

PRIME MINISTER

Official Residences

Francis Maude: To ask the Prime Minister what steps are being taken to remove persons occupying the former ministerial residence at South Eaton Place.

Gordon Brown: South Eaton Place is unoccupied. The property is for sale.

HEALTH

Asthma: Drugs

Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost savings consequent on full implementation of the 2008 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on inhaled corticosteroids for the treatment of chronic asthma.

Ann Keen: The Department has made no such estimate. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published costing reports alongside its two technology appraisals relating to the use of corticosteroids in the treatment of chronic asthma in adults and children. The costing reports are published on NICE'S website at:
	http://guidance.nice.org.uk/TA138

Asthma: Drugs

Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much he spent on metered dose inhalers in  (a) 2007-08 and  (b) 2008-09.

Mike O'Brien: The net ingredient cost of metered dose inhalers (including pressurised metered dose inhalers and dry powder inhalers) together with refills was £773.7 million in 2007-08 and £833.6 million in 2008-09. Figures are taken from the Prescription Cost Analysis system, supplied by the Prescription Services Division of the NHS Business Services Authority.
	Metered dose inhalers are defined by those listed within British National Formulary sections 3.1 Bronchodilators, 3.2 Corticosteroids and 3.3 Cromoglaticate and related therapy and leukotriene receptor antagonists.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

David Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department plans to provide funding for biomedical research into the causes, transmission and treatment of  (a) myalgic encephalomyelitis and  (b) other xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related illnesses.

David Lammy: I have been asked to reply
	The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of the main agencies through which the Government support medical and clinical research. The MRC is a non-departmental public body which receives its grant in aid from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	The MRC does not normally allocate funds to particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. When appropriate, high quality research particularly in areas of strategic importance may be given priority in competition for funds, but research excellence and importance to health continue to be the primary considerations in funding decisions. The MRC always welcomes high quality applications for support into any aspect of human health and these are judged in open competition with other demands on funding.
	Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) continues to be a strategic priority area for funding and the MRC remains committed to supporting scientific research into all aspects of CFS/ME including evaluations of treatments and studies into the biological basis of the condition.
	The MRC recently held a CFS/ME research workshop where the recent findings on xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) were among the items discussed. A note of the discussions will be published on the MRC website in due course.
	The MRC's National Institute for Medical Research is leading a programme on infection and replication of retroviruses (including XMRV). One study within the programme is looking at how XMRV reproduces in the cell, its interaction with host cell factors and how it subverts the host immune systems.

CJD

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procedures are in place to protect against the transmission of vCJD through contaminated blood; which of these procedures was recommended by the Advisory Committee on Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs; what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of such measures; and if he will make a statement.

Gillian Merron: Since the theoretical risk of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) transmission through blood was first identified as a possibility in 1996, a series of precautionary measures have been implemented to protect the blood supply and products made by fractionating plasma, including:
	 Applicable to all blood/blood products
	From December 1997, blood components, plasma products or tissues obtained from any individual who later develops vCJD, have been withdrawn/recalled to prevent their use;
	From October 1999, white blood cells (which may carry a risk of transmitting vCJD) have been reduced in all blood used for transfusion, a process known as leucodepletion or leucoreduction;
	Following the report of the first possible case of transmission of vCJD by blood transfusion in December 2003, individuals who had themselves received a transfusion of blood components since January 1980 were excluded from donating blood. This took effect from April 2004;
	In July 2004, this exclusion criterion for blood donation was extended to include two new groups, who had received transfusions of blood components since 1980:
	Previously transfused platelet donors,
	Donors who were unsure if they had previously had a blood transfusion. This now applies to donors who have been transfused anywhere in the world;
	In July 2005, the Department announced further precautionary measures for around 100 individuals who donated blood to three people who later developed vCJD. The notified people have been asked not to donate blood, tissues or organs and to inform health care professionals so extra precautions can be taken when they have surgery or other invasive procedures; and
	In November 2005, the Department announced an extension of the July 2005 notification exercise. A further 50 people who had received blood from some of the 100 or so donors notified since July 2005 were traced and notified of their potential exposure to vCJD, and asked to take similar precautions.
	 Plasma
	Since 1999, plasma for the manufacture of fractionated plasma products, such as clotting factors, has been obtained from non-UK sources;
	Since 2004, fresh frozen plasma for treating babies and young children born on or after 1 January 1996 has been obtained from the USA;
	Fresh frozen plasma for treating babies and young children born on or after 1 January 1996 has been obtained from the USA, and from July 2005 its use was extended to all children up to the age of 16;
	The national health service has been instructed to purchase imported solvent detergent-treated pooled plasma for adult patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura; and
	Synthetic (recombinant) clotting factor for treatment of haemophilia has been provided to the under-16s since 1998 and for all patients for whom it is suitable since 2005.
	 Platelets
	To reduce donor exposure, the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs in 2009 reiterated its predecessor committee's advice on increasing the percentage of platelets collected by apheresis to at least 80 per cent.
	 Cryoprecipitate (a special cold-treated plasma preparation)
	Cryoprecipitate produced from methylene blue treated-plasma imported from the USA is being implemented for children up to the age of 16. The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs is reviewing use of cryoprecipitate in older patients.
	All of these recommendations were recommended or endorsed by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (which first met in January 2008), or its predecessor committees.
	Because of the apparently lengthy incubation period of vCJD and the small number of clinical cases observed to date, it is not possible to make a definitive assessment of the contribution each measure makes to the overall risk reduction.

Contraceptives: Health Education

Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 6 January 2010,  Official Report, column 471W, on contraceptives: health education, through what metrics the effectiveness of the campaign is being measured; for what reasons his Department is using econometric modelling to determine the effectiveness of the campaign; and if he will make a statement.

Gillian Merron: The metrics that will be used to measure the effectiveness of the Contraception. Worth Talking About campaign include levels of awareness and understanding, personal relevance, willingness to discuss contraception with friends, family and partner and discussion of contraception with a health care professional. In the short term these metrics will be measured predominantly by tracking research.
	Evaluating the overall success of the campaign more thoroughly requires complex multivariate analysis based on attitudinal and behavioural data and assumptions on how people react as a result of campaign activity. In the medium to long term we are considering using econometric modelling as this uses statistical techniques to strip out irrelevant factors affecting the results of the campaign.

Departmental Drinking Water

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on bottled drinking water in 2009; and if he will make a statement.

Phil Hope: The Department does not purchase bottled water.
	For meeting or hospitality purposes the Department utilises its own water supply which is filtered and bottled on site.
	In 2009 the cost of this was £39,925.08.

Departmental Management Consultants

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much consultants employed by his Department and its agencies have been paid  (a) in total and  (b) in reimbursable expenses in each of the last 10 years.

Phil Hope: Specific information detailing spend on management consultancy has been routinely collected by the Department since April 2005. Information on management consultancy expenditure before April 2005 is not held by the Department.
	Information is collected on total payments to management consultancy organisations and does not reflect the payment to individual employees. The figures from April 2005 until March 2009 are as follows:
	
		
			   £ million 
			 2005-06 133 
			 2006-07 205 
			 2007-08 132 
			 2008-09 127 
		
	
	Information on expenditure on reimbursable expenses is not collected centrally. It is the Department's preference to commission management consultancy based on fixed prices for entire pieces of work and to include expenses as part of this.
	Where expenses are paid, the Department reimburses costs at the same rates and policies as for its own employees.

Departmental Pay

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding his Department has allocated for  (a) year-end and  (b) in-year bonuses for its staff in 2009-10.

Phil Hope: The wages/salaries outturn for the Department for 2009-10 is not yet known. Based on projections, it is estimated that non-consolidated performance payments will represent a maximum of 1.7 per cent. of the pay bill for 2009-10.
	Non-consolidated performance payments are an integral part of the Department's reward strategy for staff at all levels. These payments have to be re-earned each year and do not add to future pay bill costs.

Health Education: Internet

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 16 December 2009,  Official Report, column 1317W, on health education: internet, what the name was of the company paid £10,000 to develop the iPhone application.

Gillian Merron: The Department paid Capita Health Services £10,000 to develop the iPhone application. Capita then paid £9,000 of this to Brain Bakery and the remaining £1,000 to Antbits Interactive for the design and delivery of the application.

Health Services: South West

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many  (a) nurses and  (b) doctors were employed in (i) the South West and (ii) the South Devon Healthcare Trust in each year since 1997.

Ann Keen: Figures on how many nurses and doctors were employed in the South West strategic health authority area and the South Devon healthcare trust in each year since 1997 are given in the following table:
	
		
			  National health service hospital and community health services (HCHS): Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff in the South West strategic health authority area and the South Devon healthcare NHS trust, as at 30 September each year 
			  Headcount 
			   1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008 
			 South West strategic health authority area medical and dental staff 5,092 5,376 5,484 5,826 6,115 6,575 6,975 7,550 8,031 8,395 8,578 8,944 
			 General practitioners (excluding retainers) 3,185 3,257 3,307 3,363 3,430 3,467 3,587 3,879 4,065 3,955 3,956 4,196 
			 Qualified HCHS nursing staff 29,927 29,966 30,286 31,105 32,671 34,106 35,739 35,342 36,542 36,539 36,754 38,093 
			 GP practice nurses 1,940 1,911 1,930 2,002 2,197 2,355 2,283 2,363 2,449 2,632 2,563 2,504 
			  
			  O f which : 
			 South Devon healthcare NHS trust medical and dental staff 283 284 309 309 332 309 322 354 365 374 390 400 
			 Qualified HCHS nursing staff 1,430 1,459 1,492 1,542 1,525 924 927 980 980 950 998 948 
			  Notes:  1. It is highly likely that the drop in numbers of staff at South Devon healthcare NHS trust in 2002 is due to the migration of community-based services during the formation of primary care trusts that cover the South Devon area.  2. GP retainers are part-time GPs who work a small number of sessions per week. They were first collected in 1999 and have been omitted for comparability purposes.  3. Medical and dental staff are doctors that work in the HCHS setting. The title medical and dental refers to the distinction between doctors in medical specialties and dental specialties and is used to differentiate between high street GPs.   Source:  The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce Census.

Health: Unemployment

Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice he has received from the Chief Medical Officer on the effects on public health of present trends in the level of unemployment.

Gillian Merron: We have not had any specific advice on the effects on public health of the present trend in the level of employment from the Chief Medical Officer.

Hospitals: Admissions

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many attendances there were at  (a) accident and emergency departments and  (b) minor injury units in (i) December 2008 and (ii) December 2009.

Mike O'Brien: Information is not collected in the format requested. Information is collected weekly, not monthly. Depending on how the days of the week fall in any given year there can be four or five weekly collections in each month. In December 2008 there were four weekly collections, and in December 2009 five. The following table shows the number of attendances at all types of accident and emergency (AE) departments in England in December 2008 and December 2009, collected through the weekly collections. However, the figures are not directly comparable due to the difference in the number of data collections within each month. We have provided data for all attendances at AE departments as we do not collect separate figures for minor injuries units weekly. The data provided are from the Department's weekly SitRep management data which are not validated.
	
		
			  Number of attendances at all types of AE departments, England 
			   A E attendances (t housand)  Number of weeks of data collected 
			 December 2008 1,462.9 4 
			 December 2009 1,819.2 5 
			  Source:  Department of Health Weekly SitReps.

Hospitals: Admissions

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients have been admitted to hospital in  (a) Ashford constituency and  (b) Kent after being attacked by a dog in the last five years.

Mike O'Brien: The Department is unable to provide data specifically for the Ashford constituency due to low numbers, as numbers between one and five would need suppressing due to the Hospital Episode Statistics protocol. The numbers of finished admission episodes for people bitten or struck by a dog by Kent Primary Care Trust (PCT) for the years 2004-05 to 2008-09 are provided in the following table.
	
		
			  Number of finished admission episodes (FAEs) for bitten or struck by dog by Kent PCT, 2004-05 to 2008-09: Activity in English NHS Hospital and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector 
			   West Kent PCT  Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT  Medway PCT  Total 
			 2008-09 60 61 39 160 
			 2007-08 70 55 23 148 
			 2006-07 54 40 27 121 
			 2005-06 51 34 25 110 
			 2004-05 52 38 18 108 
			  Notes: Kent has been made up of the following PCTs: In 2006-07 to 2008-09: West Kent Eastern and coastal Kent Medway Teaching Prior to 2006-07 West Kent was formerly made up of: Maidstone Weald PCT South West Kent PCT Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley PCT  Prior to 2006-07 Eastern and coastal Kent was formerly made up of: Swale PCT Ashford PCT Canterbury and Coastal PCT East Kent Coastal PCT Shepway PCT  Prior to 2006-07 Medway Teaching PCT was formerly made up of: Medway PCT It should be noted that the number of FAEs does not represent the number of patients as a patient may have been admitted more than once within a year.  Source:  Hospital Episode Statistics, The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.

Human Tissue Act

Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will bring forward proposals to amend the Human Tissue Act 2004 to ensure that the rules for informal consent apply equally to imported and exported body tissue; and if he will make a statement.

Gillian Merron: The Human Tissue Act 2004 requires that these matters be dealt with through the preparation and issue of a code of practice by the Human Tissue Authority. It remains the Government's view that this is the right approach. The Human Tissue Authority published a code of practice on the import and export of human bodies, body parts and tissue in May 2007.
	In relation to imports, the code says:
	Good practice requires that effective and reliable processes should be in place for acquiring evidence of informed consent from the prospective donor. This means that the importer should have in place policies and/or Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which clearly set out the evidence indicating how informed consent was obtained, including safeguarding the confidentiality of all information relating to consent.
	In relation to exports, the code says:
	SLAs (service level agreements) should be in place to ensure that human bodies, body parts and tissue to be exported from England, Wales and Northern Ireland are used in accordance with the consent that has been obtained.

Mental Health Services: Ex-servicemen

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 11 January 2009,  Official Report, columns 15-16WS, on medical care (veterans), what special provisions he expects mental health services to make for veterans during 2011-12.

Mike O'Brien: The Operating framework for the national health service in England 2010-11 makes it clear that meeting the needs of military and ex-military personnel is a reputational issue for the NHS as a whole. This includes mental health.
	The NHS will be helped in this task by the results of six United Kingdom pilots that aimed to test different approaches to encouraging uptake of NHS mental health services by veterans. This will report in the next few weeks.
	In addition, we are currently launching a project which will embed personnel from the Combat Stress charity into another six or seven mental health trusts to build on benefits of collaborative working between the NHS and the voluntary sector.
	Commissioning responsibility for mental health care services, including any special provisions for veterans, now rests with individual primary care trusts. We do not propose to change this.

Mental Health Services: Ex-servicemen

Stephen Ladyman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate has he made of the number of former service personnel who have received treatment for mental illness in each year since 1992.

Mike O'Brien: The fact that someone has served in the armed forces is not recorded within national health service information systems, so these figures are not available.
	The Defence Medical Services and Department of Health will shortly introduce a new process to help service leavers register with an NHS general practitioner, including direct transfer of medical records and this will allow the individuals status as a veteran to be passed to other health workers, including within mental health services.

Multiple Sclerosis

Patrick Hall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of research carried out by Professor Paolo Zamboni of Ferrara University into the relationship between chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency and multiple sclerosis.

Ann Keen: We have made no assessment of this research.

NHS: Finance

Andrew Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the £161 million allocated by his Department each primary care trust spent on commissioning extended hours services.

Mike O'Brien: Final data to inform spend of the £161 million allocation by primary care trust will not be available until later in the year.

NHS: Parking

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with  (a) strategic health authorities,  (b) acute hospital trusts and  (c) foundation hospital trusts on the potential effects on (i) income and (ii) service provision of ending the system of car park charges at NHS facilities; and if he will make a statement.

Mike O'Brien: On 29 December 2009, a consultation exercise was launched by the Department on car parking for patients and their families at national health service hospitals. The consultation allows everybody, including strategic health authorities, acute hospitals and foundation trusts, to give their opinion of the potential effects of changing the system of car park charges at NHS facilities.
	The NHS Car Parking: Consultation on Improving Access for Patients is available on the Department's website at:
	www.dh.gov.uk/en/consultations/liveconsultations/dh_110557
	A copy has been placed in the Library.

NHS: Per Capita Costs

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent per capita by the NHS in  (a) South Tyneside,  (b) the North East and  (c) England in each year since 1997.

Mike O'Brien: The information requested is shown in the following table for the financial years 2002-03 to 2008-09, which are the only years figures are available by individual organisation.
	
		
			  Table 1: Spend per capita in South Tyneside, the North East and England, 2002-03 to 2008-09 
			  £ 
			   South Tyneside  North East  England 
			 2008-09 1,784 1,700 1,499 
			 2007-08 1,691 1,612 1,428 
			 2006-07 1,532 1,475 1,315 
			 2005-06 1,446 1,394 1,286 
			 2004-05 1,316 1,272 1,183 
			 2003-04 1,124 1,127 1,045 
			 2002-03 (1)n/a 1,086 917 
			 1 A spend per capita figure for South Tyneside in 2002-03 is not available centrally, as the spend in this particular area cannot be disaggregated from the data held in respect of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority.  Note: Expenditure data used in the calculation of spend per capita values is taken from the audited summarisation schedules of national health service bodies, 2002-03 to 2008-09. 
		
	
	The amount spent by the NHS in England per capita for 1997-98 to 2001-02 is separately shown in the following table. Expenditure figures for these years are only available at a consolidated national level, from the published NHS summarised accounts. It is not possible to disaggregate spend in specific constituencies or regions from these figures.
	
		
			  Table 2: Spend per capita in England, 1997-98 to 2001-02 
			  £ 
			   England 
			 2001-02 915 
			 2000-01 842 
			 1999-2000 773 
			 1998-99 718 
			 1997-98 663

Nurses: Schools

Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects his Department's target for one qualified school nurse to be allocated to each secondary school and its cluster of primary schools to be met.

Ann Keen: Working in partnership across heath and education we have made good progress in expanding the qualified school nursing workforce.
	Linking primary schools to their nearest secondary school gives about 3,000 clusters in England. The 2008 workforce census showed there were 3,643 (headcount) qualified nurses working in school health services, an increase of 1,234 or 51 per cent. since 2004. Of these, there were 1,447 (headcount) nurses with the post registration school nurse qualification. This is an increase of 591 or 69 per cent. since 2004.
	Workforce data for 2009 will be available on 25 March when the NHS Information Centre publishes the 2009 Workforce Census.

Nurses: Schools

Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ratio of full-time equivalent school nurses to pupils was in  (a) North Cornwall constituency and  (b) Cornwall in each year since 2004.

Ann Keen: The information requested is not held centrally.
	The Department does not hold data on the ratio of school nurses to pupils. However, in the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust (PCT), the number of full time equivalent qualified nursing staff in the school nursing area of work as at 30 September for each specified year, is given in the following table.
	
		
			  National health service hospita l and community health services-Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT:  qualified nursing staff in the school nursing area of work in each specified organisation as at 30 September each year 
			   Full time equivalent 
			 2004 3 
			 2005 9 
			 2006 13 
			 2007 15 
			 2008 18 
			  Note: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT was formed in 2006 from a completer merger of West of Cornwall PCT, North and East Cornwall PCT and Central Cornwall PCT. Figures for earlier years are an aggregate of these predecessor organisation.  Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce Census.

Nurses: Schools

Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many qualified school nurses there were in  (a) North Cornwall constituency and  (b) Cornwall in each year since 2004.

Ann Keen: The information is not held in the format requested.
	In the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust (PCT), the number of qualified nursing staff in the school nursing area of work, as at 30 September for each specified year, is given in the following table.
	
		
			  National health service hospital and community health services-Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT :  qualified nursing staff in the school nursing area of work in each specified organisation as at 30 September each year 
			   Headcount 
			 2004 5 
			 2005 5 
			 2006 17 
			 2007 19 
			 2008 24 
			  Note: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly PCT was formed in 2006 from a completer merger of West of Cornwall PCT, North and East Cornwall PCT and Central Cornwall PCT. Figures for earlier years are an aggregate of these predecessor organisations.  Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce Census.

Prescriptions: Fees and Charges

John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether Professor Ian Gilmore has reported to his Department the conclusions of the review of prescription charges for patients with long-term conditions; and when he expects the review to be published.

Mike O'Brien: Professor Gilmore has now submitted his report to the Department of Health. The recommendations are currently being considered. We will publish our response shortly.

Spina Bifida

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on research into spina bifida in each of the last three years.

Gillian Merron: The available information is shown in the following table.
	
		
			  Expenditure on spina bifida research 
			  £ million 
			   Department of Health  Medical Research Council 
			 2006-07 n/a 0.2 
			 2007-08 0.2 0.1 
			 2008-09 0.4 0.2 
			 n/a = not available 
		
	
	The Department funds the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit. One of the unit's five work streams includes research on spina bifida. It is not possible separately to identify its cost.
	In addition, the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network is providing NHS research infrastructure support to one study of relevance to the question.

Spina Bifida

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of people with spina bifida has lived to adulthood in each of the last 10 years.

Ann Keen: Information on the survival rates for people with spina bifida is not collected centrally.

Streatham

Keith Hill: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to Streatham constituency, the effects on that constituency of changes to his Department's policies since 1997.

Mike O'Brien: The Government have put in place a programme of national health service investment and reform since 1997 to improve service delivery in all parts of the United Kingdom. 93 per cent. of people nationally now rate the NHS as good or excellent. The NHS Constitution contains 25 rights and 14 pledges for patients and the public including new rights to be treated within 18 weeks, or be seen by a cancer specialist within two weeks and a NHS Health Check every five years for those aged 40-74 years.
	There is significant evidence that these policies have yielded considerable benefits for the Streatham constituency. For example:
	 Figures for November 2009 show that in Lambeth primary care trust (PCT):
	91 per cent. of patients whose treatment involved admission to hospital started their treatment within 18 weeks.
	97 per cent. of patients whose treatment did not involve admission to hospital started their treatment within 18 weeks.
	Between September 2001 and September 2008 the number of general practitioners (GPs) per 100,000 within Lambeth PCT has increased from 67.9 to 91.9.
	Lambeth PCT opened one of London's first polyclinics-Gracefield Gardens Health and Social Care Centre in Streatham-in June 2008. From April 1 2009, Gracefield Gardens has offered extended opening hours, meaning that any member of the public will be able to see a GP or nurse between 8 am and 8 pm, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
	 Guy' s and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust :
	In September 2009, at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, 98.3 per cent. of patients spent less than four hours in accident and emergency (AE) from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge.
	Between September 1997 and September 2008 the number of consultants at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust has increased from 339 to 432. Between September 1997 and September 2008 the estimated number of nurses has increased from 2,158 to 3,597.
	95.9 per cent. of urgent GP referrals to Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust with suspected cancer are seen by a specialist within two weeks of the referral.
	 King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust:
	In September 2009, at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, 98.4 per cent. of patients spent less than four hours in AE from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge.
	Between September 1997 and September 2008 the number of consultants at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has increased from 140 to 408. Between September 1997 and September 2008 the estimated number of nurses has increased from 1,595 to 2,507.
	92.7 per cent. of urgent GP referrals to King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust with suspected cancer are seen by a specialist within two weeks of the referral.
	 The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust:
	In September 2009, at King's The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust, 98.9 per cent. of patients spent less than four hours in AE from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge.
	Between September 1997 and September 2008 the number of consultants at The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust has increased from 68 to 103. Between September 1997 and September 2008 the estimated number of nurses has increased from 848 to 1,320.
	91.4 per cent. of urgent GP referrals to The Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust with suspected cancer are seen by a specialist within two weeks of the referral.
	Although statistical information is not available at a local level, Streatham will have also benefited from national policies in other areas. For example:
	Since 1997, gross current expenditure on personal social services has increased by around 70 per cent. in real terms with around 105,000 households now receiving intensive home care and 3,076 new extra care housing units-exceeding the original target of 1,500 new extra care units.
	Other strategies currently being implemented are:
	Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Personal Care at Home Bill will guarantee free personal care for 280,000 people with the highest needs and help around 130,000 people who need home care for the first time to regain their independence;
	Shaping the Future of Care Together Green Paper, published in July 2009, sets out a vision for a National Care Service for all adults in England which is fair, simple and affordable. The Department has consulted widely on this reform and is currently analysing the responses, which will feed into a White Paper later this year;
	The National Carer's Strategy-(Carers at the heart of 21(st) century families and communities)-launched in 2008;
	The first National Dementia Strategy was published in February 2009;
	Valuing People Now-a three year strategy for people with learning disabilities published in January 2009; and
	New Horizons: A Shared Vision for Mental Health-launched in December 2009-to maintain improvements in mental health services combined with a new cross-Government approach to promoting public mental health.
	Since 1998, there are now 2.4 million fewer smokers in England as a result of the Government's comprehensive tobacco control strategy which has a measurable impact on reducing smoking prevalence.
	Child obesity levels are reducing due to the efforts of families across England, supported by the Government's obesity strategy. In 2008, 13.9 per cent. of children (aged two to 10) in England were classified as obese, compared with 17.3 per cent. in 2005.
	Overall, life expectancy at birth for men has increased from 74.5 years (1995-1997 data) to 77.7 years (2006-08 data) while for women, life expectancy at birth has increased from 79.6 years (1995-97 data) to 81.9 years (2006-08 data). (Source: Mortality target monitoring (life expectancy and all-age all cause mortality, overall and inequalities): update to include data from 2008.
	www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsStatistics/DH_107609

Stress

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of the advice issued to his Department's staff on stress recognition and management.

Phil Hope: The Department provides guidance to all staff and managers on stress recognition and stress management on the Departmental intranet. A text version of this guidance has been placed in the Library.
	In addition the Department offers a free counselling service as part of its employee assistance programme that gives free and confidential support to any member of staff who feel they need it.

Tamiflu

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for how long he expects his Department to continue to issue free Tamiflu medication.

Gillian Merron: We intend to continue to distribute antivirals to patients with swine flu symptoms free of charge until the end of the seasonal flu period in 2010, i.e. the end of March 2010. The current working assumption is that antiviral policy will revert to normal from 1 April 2010 onwards, although we will keep the situation under close review.

Urinary System: Screening

Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the  (a) number of tests for urinary tract infection carried out in each of the last three years for which figures are available and  (b) cost of those tests.

Ann Keen: Information on the number or cost of such tests is not collected centrally.

Weather: Death

Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the likely number of excess deaths attributable to cold weather in January 2010.

Gillian Merron: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) releases provisional mortality statistics for the previous winter every following autumn. These figures are placed on the ONS website once published. It is not possible to get exact figures earlier than this due to time delays from death certification.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Departmental Housing

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many  (a) empty and  (b) occupied residential properties his Department owns; and what the (i) potential annual rental and (ii) total book value is of those (A) empty and (B) occupied residential properties.

Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) owns eight residential properties, all of which are occupied.
	DFID does not keep information on potential annual rental of its properties. To obtain this information would incur disproportionate costs.
	The Total Book Value of occupied residential properties when our Resource Accounts were last published on 31 March 2009 was £9.2 million.

Departmental Manpower

Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many employees in his Department are in transition prior to being managed out; how long on average the transition window between notification and exit has been in each of the last five years; what estimate he has made of the salary costs of staff in transition in each such year; and what proportion of employees in transition were classed as being so for more than six months in each year.

Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) currently has two members of staff in transition.
	They have both been in transition since November 2009 and we anticipate redeployment to a new DFID post within the next few days.
	DFID formalised its policies on the management of surplus staff in the summer of 2009. DFID has not exited staff in transition in the past five years and it has not been necessary to estimate salary costs for staff in transition during this period.

Departmental Written Questions

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what average time his Department took to answer questions for  (a) ordinary written answer and  (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months.

Michael Foster: The requested information cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate costs.
	The Department for International Development (DFID) endeavours to answer all parliamentary questions on time. We record and regularly report to the Leader of the House on the number of ordinary written and named day questions received and the number of such questions answered on time and late.

Haiti: Humanitarian Aid

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the effects of the earthquake in Haiti on the capacity for the transfer of remittance payments from the UK to that country.

Michael Foster: We have received reports that remittance agencies and banks in the Port-au-Prince area began opening again on 22 January. However, we are still in the emergency relief phase of the operation and it is still too early to estimate when payments systems will be fully operational in Haiti.
	The United States, in contrast to the United Kingdom, is a large source of remittances for Haiti and is looking closely at how best to facilitate cost effective wire transfers from the United States. We will do all we can to support the UN and Government of Haiti in drawing attention to this important issue, as well as supporting the re-establishment of communications and remittance networks.

Israel

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development on how many occasions since the end of Operation Cast Lead Ministers from his Department have visited Israel; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Foster: I visited Israel in January 2009 and the Secretary of State for International Development visited in March 2009.

Palestinians: Humanitarian Aid

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will send a Minister from his Department to Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation there; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Foster: There are no immediate plans for a Minister from the Department for International Development (DFID) to visit Gaza. Officials from DFID regularly visit Gaza to assess the humanitarian situation. We also maintain close and regular contact with UN agencies and NGOs who are active in Gaza in order to contribute to our assessment of the situation.

Palestinians: Humanitarian Aid

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the answer of 21 January 2010,  Official Report, column 467W, on Palestinians: overseas aid, for how long he was in Gaza on 1 March 2009; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Foster: The Secretary of State for International Development spent around three hours in Gaza, where he visited a number of locations which had been damaged during the conflict.

Palestinians: Humanitarian Aid

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions he has had with the  (a) Government of Egypt and  (b) Palestinian authorities on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has not had any recent discussions with the Government of Egypt regarding the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. We believe Israel continues to have obligations as an occupying power with respect to Gaza, and that the main responsibility for ensuring humanitarian access to Gaza therefore lies with Israel rather than Egypt.
	In mid-January, DFID's director responsible for the Middle East discussed the issue of support for Gaza with Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Fayyad and with the PA Minister for Planning and Development. DFID's office in Jerusalem also participates in regular meetings of the Humanitarian Task Force, in which the delivery of humanitarian aid to both Gaza and the West Bank is discussed between the UN, donors and the PA.

Somalia: Politics and Government

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions he has had with the authorities in Somalia on the humanitarian situation in that country; and if he will make a statement.

Gareth Thomas: The UK Government are very concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Somalia. The United Nations estimate that 3.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. I met a delegation of Ministers, led by the Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdurashid Ali Sharmarke, in October 2009 and discussed the humanitarian situation in the country. Officials from the Department for International Development (DFID) also discuss these issues with the Somali authorities and international partners in Nairobi on a regular basis.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Democratic Republic of Congo: Foreign Relations

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Government of Democratic Republic of Congo on Joshua French; and if he will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: There have been no discussions between the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on this matter.
	My right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Department for International Development, raised our opposition to the death penalty with the President of the DRC during his visit to the DRC in September 2009. Our ambassador to the DRC and other British officials have also raised our concerns with the Government of the DRC regarding the death penalty. They have also raised concerns over alleged mistreatment and over aspects of the trial process.
	We are opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. Where a British national faces the death penalty, we will make representations at whatever stage and level is deemed appropriate. We understand that the DRC has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty and hope that this will remain the case.
	We are cooperating with the Norwegian authorities on this case. The welfare of Joshua French remains our priority.

Departmental Written Questions

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what average time his Department took to answer questions for  (a) ordinary written answer and  (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months.

Chris Bryant: In the calendar year 2009, the figures were six sitting days and five sitting days respectively.
	Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers and officials take very seriously their responsibility to reply to parliamentary questions on time, and we have introduced new management and procedures which have improved our performance.
	In December 2009, 90 per cent. of written answers were cleared for reply within five sitting days, and 75 per cent. of named day questions were cleared for reply on the specified date.

EC Law

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether any competences have been returned from EU to national level as a result of the application of the principle of subsidiarity since the Treaty on European Union came into effect.

Chris Bryant: The principle of subsidiarity is not a mechanism for returning powers' to the member states, but for determining whether or not Community action should be set in motion.
	The member states, through the EU treaties, set the EU certain tasks and give it the powers to achieve those tasks. Article 5 of the treaty establishing the European Community states that, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Community shall take action, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the Community.
	Further guidelines for assessing whether these requirements are met are laid down by the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The Protocol also requires the Commission to justify the relevance of any of its legislative proposals with regard to the principle of subsidiarity.
	The Lisbon Treaty strengthens the role of national parliaments in EU decision-making, so that for the first time national parliaments could challenge draft EU legislation on subsidiarity grounds. It is for Parliament to decide how to exercise its rights under these procedures.
	The Lisbon Treaty also, for the first time, empowered member states to withdraw from the European Union.

Gaza

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on how many occasions since the end of Operation Cast Lead UK diplomats from  (a) the UK Embassy in Tel Aviv and  (b) the British Consulate in Jerusalem have visited Gaza; and if he will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: British officials based in Jerusalem and, to a lesser extent, Tel Aviv, have visited Gaza on more than 20 occasions since January 2009. Our Consulate General in Jerusalem also has two members of local staff permanently based in Gaza.

Human Rights

Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what results he has received on the  (a) length,  (b) characteristics,  (c) legality under international law and  (d) effect on human rights of the Saharawi people of the structure erected between Guerguerat and Oued Drâa.

Ivan Lewis: With regard to parts  (a) and  (b) of the question I refer the hon. Member to the website of the UN peacekeeping mission to Western Sahara (MINURSO):
	http://www.minurso.unlb.org/berm.html
	This details factual information on the length of the berm, the materials it is made of and its history.
	With regard to part  (c) of the question, the UK regards the status of the disputed territory of Western Sahara as undetermined and continues to believe progress towards a negotiated solution to the dispute, providing for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, is best achieved under the auspices of the UN. Any issues relating to the berm will need to be resolved and considered in that context.
	With regard to part  (d) of the question we continue to believe that greater openness and transparency on human rights by all the parties to the dispute would create a significantly better environment for political dialogue. Both sides have imperfect records on human rights. Morocco's record in Western Sahara has improved in recent years, but more needs to be done to provide equality of opportunity for the people of the territory. We welcome the efforts of the parties, in partnership with MINURSO and NGOs, to reduce the threat posed by mines and unexploded ordnance in the region of the berm. We also support the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, in his efforts to build confidence between the parties, including encouragement to cooperate with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees towards establishing family visits by land.

Human Trafficking

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had on people-trafficking in  (a) Bangladesh,  (b) Yemen and  (c) Pakistan with representatives from each of those countries.

Ivan Lewis: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has not had any recent discussions on people trafficking with representatives of Bangladesh, Yemen or Pakistan. This is a Home Office policy lead.
	Officials from both departments do have regular contact with their opposite numbers from these countries on a range of migration and trafficking related issues.

Israel

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on how many occasions since the end of Operation Cast Lead Ministers from his Department have visited Israel; and if he will make a statement.

Ivan Lewis: I visited both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories once each, in August 2009. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary last visited the region in November 2008.

Ogaden: Politics and Government

Sally Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the political situation in Ogaden.

Ivan Lewis: The Government remain concerned by the situation in the Ogaden. Conflict continues between the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and Ethiopian Government forces, and access to the region is tightly controlled. We have serious concerns over alleged human rights abuses in the region and over the humanitarian situation.
	The UK has called on the Ethiopian government to undertake a credible and independent investigation into the alleged abuses, so that they can be addressed where they are found to have taken place, whether committed by the Government or by ONLF forces. We have also highlighted the pressing need for humanitarian agencies, in particular, to have adequate access to the region.

Shipping: Pay

Gwyn Prosser: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will place in the Library a copy of the legal advice he has obtained on the law of the sea and the application of the national minimum wage to seafarers working on foreign-flagged ships operating between two UK ports.

Ivan Lewis: Lord Malloch-Brown, then Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, wrote to the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress on 24 July 2009, explaining the legal position regarding the application of the national minimum wage to seafarers working on foreign-flagged vessels in the territorial sea, including when operating between two UK ports.
	I am arranging for a copy of this letter to be placed in the Library.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Business: Ex-servicemen

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many ex-service personnel have received funding from the £5 million enterprise support programme announced in paragraph 4.51 of the 2009 Pre-Budget Report; and how much of the funding allocated has been spent.

Rosie Winterton: holding answer 21 January 2010
	Funding from the Enterprise Support Programme will be available in financial year 2010/11, so no one has received funding as yet. In the meantime, enterprise support is available to ex-service personnel via Business Link.

Business: Kent

Damian Green: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the recent industrial action by Royal Mail employees on small businesses in  (a) Ashford constituency and  (b) Kent.

Pat McFadden: It is clear that industrial action by Royal Mail staff has an impact on those customers that heavily rely on Royal Mail services and we are aware that many small businesses throughout the country use postal services on a daily basis.
	The Government want to see a successful outcome to the ongoing discussions between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union and we welcome the efforts of Roger Poole (former Assistant General Secretary of NUPE and of Unison and Chairman of the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland) as an independent third party in overseeing the current process of talks.
	It is essential for both parties to keep talking until an agreement is made on a way forward on the next phase of modernisation, which everyone accepts is vital for Royal Mail's future.

Business: Lancashire

Geraldine Smith: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assistance the Northwest Regional Development Agency has provided to businesses in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency in respect of the economic downturn.

Rosie Winterton: Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) established in 1999 has provided extensive support to businesses across the region including in the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency. The NWDA's main support for businesses is through regionally available Solutions for Business products in which the agency invested £92.75 million in 2008/09. The Solutions for Business portfolio includes: business finance, improving innovation and efficiency, business start-up, advice on international trade, work force training, and sector development through regional cluster organisations. The primary access point is Business Link which provides companies with information, diagnostics and brokerage to specific types of support. In a direct response to the downturn Business Link can respond to emergencies within 24 hours and utilise the region's rapid response team if required. The agency and Business Link have also been working with partners such as chambers of commerce and local authorities to promote business support services and share intelligence on companies and sectors which have been impacted by the downturn. The NWDA has also worked with the banks and doubled its investment in business finance in 2009/10. The NWDA is tackling short-term economic problems whilst also taking a long-term view in line with the Government's New Industry, New Jobs policy which promotes investment in growth sectors to compete in the global economy.

Departmental Disclosure of Information

David Davis: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether  (a) agencies and  (b) non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible sell information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations.

Pat McFadden: Government Departments and agencies and non-departmental public bodies that have Crown status, make most of their information available for free re-use under the PSI Click-Use Licence. Government trading funds, such as the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), for which BIS have ministerial responsibility, are able under their trading fund status to charge for the services they provide in order to cover their costs. This covers information and its supply provided to other public bodies, commercial organisations and individuals. In common with other Government policy, some information is sold as priced publications.
	I have approached the Chief Executives of the Department's executive agencies and they will respond to the hon. Member directly.
	Information on Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) is not held centrally and due to the number of NDPBs, this would incur disproportionate cost.
	 Letter from Sean Dennehey, dated 25 January 2010:
	I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 20 January 2010, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	The Intellectual Property Office makes available value added public domain information it has relating to Patents, Trade Marks and other Intellectual Property on normal commercial terms to companies, individuals and other bodies. It also has some publications on commercial terms covering the latest developments in IP law. This represents a small part of the Trading Fund's business.
	 Letter from Gareth Jones:
	I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 20 January 2010, UIN 313217, to the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
	Companies House sells details of directors, copies of annual accounts, incorporation documents and other company information to members of the public, companies or public sector organisations. This is sold on a cost recovery basis.
	 Letter from Peter Mason, dated 22 January 2010:
	I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office (formerly National Weights and Measures Laboratory) to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 20/01/2010 [reference 2009/1032] to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, asking whether the agency sells information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations.
	The agency does not sell any information to any companies, individuals or organisations. Information that we previously charged for hard copies is now available free by download from on our website. We provide certain information such as our annual report free of charge to the Office of Public Sector Information, which makes a charge for hard copy material through The Stationery Office. We make this information available as free downloads from our website.
	 Letter from Stephen Speed:
	I write with reference to your question, raised in Parliament, in which you asked:
	To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether (a) agencies and (b) non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible sell information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations.
	I have been asked to respond to your query as Chief Executive of The Insolvency Service.
	Before responding in detail, however, I should clarify that the Insolvency Service does not sell any of the information it holds on a commercial basis.
	The main database of information published by my agency is the electronic Individual Insolvency Register (eIIR), which holds details of:
	Current bankruptcies, and those which have ended within the last three months;
	Current individual voluntary arrangements and fast track voluntary arrangements;
	Debt Relief Orders; and
	Current bankruptcy restrictions orders and undertakings.
	Access to the register is freely available through the Insolvency Service's website, http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/bankruptcy/bankruptcysearch.htm, and no charge is made to view the data.
	The full database of information is also available in a processed format, for which an administrative charge is levied. The charge is calculated on a cost recovery basis.
	I trust that the above information will prove useful to you.

Departmental Information Officers

Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many  (a) press officers and  (b) communications staff were employed by his Department (i) in each of the last five years and (ii) on the latest date for which figures are available; and what the cost of employing these staff was in each such year.

Pat McFadden: The information requested is as follows:
	 ( a) Press officers
	The number of press officers currently at BIS is 27. This combines the press offices from the former BERR and former DIUS. The press office co-ordinates all the media handling for the Department's current 10 Ministers and the Government Chief Scientific Adviser.
	The number of press officers in previous years was:
	2008: 17 BERR; 13 DIUS
	2007: 16 (DTI/BERR)
	2006: 17 (DTI)
	2005: 18 (DTI)
	2004: 19 (DTI)
	The total staffing costs for press office staff for the former BERR, DIUS and DTI are:
	
		
			£ 
			 2008/09 BERR 1,080,000 
			 2008/09 DIUS 766,000 
			 2007/08 DTI/BERR 1,261,000 
			 2006/07 DTI 1,023,000 
			 2005/06 DTI 992,000 
			 2004/05 DTI 871,000 
		
	
	This includes staff costs for press officers and support staff working in the press office. A breakdown of costs for press officers and non press officers could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
	 (b) Communications staff
	The total number of full time equivalent communications staff currently at BIS, excluding press officers, is 74. This figure covers staff in the central communications directorate employed in communications roles, excluding support staff, secondees and agency staff. Communications roles currently include strategy and planning, internal communications, strategic marketing, stakeholder liaison and digital communications.
	Figures for the number of communications staff employed in the last five years cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate costs.
	
		
			  Total staffing costs for staff in the central communications directorate, excluding press office costs. 
			£ 
			 2008/09 BERR 1,842,000 
			 2008/09 DIUS (marketing team) 1,105,000 
			 2007/08 DTI/BERR 2,073,000 
			 2006/07 DTI 1,945,000 
			 2005/06 DTI 1,842,000 
			 2004/05 DTI (excluding internal communications) 1,879.000

Departmental Video Conferencing

Gregory Barker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what process was involved in procuring the installation of video conferencing and telepresence facilities in Kingsgate House; and which companies were invited to take part in that process.

Pat McFadden: The procurement and installation of the video conferencing and telepresence facilities when implemented in Kingsgate House were undertaken using an existing video conferencing contract the Department for Children, Schools and Families had in place at the time with British Telecom and no formal competition was therefore necessary.

Departmental Video Conferencing

Gregory Barker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many video conferencing screens there are as part of the telepresence facilities in Kingsgate House.

Pat McFadden: For the telepresence facilities only one large video conferencing screen is used.

Departmental Written Questions

David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what average time his Department took to answer questions for  (a) ordinary written answer and  (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months.

Pat McFadden: The information requested cannot be obtained on either the Department's database system nor the Parliamentary Information Management System (PIMS) and could only be obtained by manual checking at disproportionate cost.
	With effect from the current Session of Parliament, each department will provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics on the time taken to answer written questions. This implements recommendation 24 of the third report from the Procedure Committee, Session 2008-09.

Employee Engagement Review

Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  what assistance his Department is providing to encourage implementation of the recommendations of the MacLeod review of employee engagement by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and whether his Department plans to provide funding for SMEs for such purposes after March 2010;
	(2)  whether his Department plans to provide funding for the implementation of the recommendations of the MacLeod review of employee engagement from the end of March 2010.

Pat McFadden: The Department is currently implementing the recommendations from the MacLeod Review report 'Engaging for Success'. The Government have committed to implementation by March 2010.
	Our objectives in implementing the MacLeod recommendations are to make the business case for engagement; to provide practical support for businesses who wish to go down the engagement route; and to make that help as widely accessible as possible.
	To that end, a campaign to raise awareness among businesses-in particular SMEs-of the benefits of adopting employee engagement practices was launched in the autumn-featuring regional and national media and events, and focused around a dedicated campaign website:
	www.businesslink.gov.uk/employeengagement
	At the same time, we have been developing a range of quick start guides on engagement for businesses. Focused on the key themes from the MacLeod Report-Leadership; Engaging Managers; Employee Voice; and Organisational Integrity-these will be launched on the BusinessLink.gov website in March. We are working with other mainstream providers of advice and support to businesses-both inside and outside Government-to ensure that these guides reach as wide an audience as possible; and to guarantee that practical support and guidance on employee engagement remains readily available to employers in the future. More generally, the Department's support for SMEs will continue longer term through the guidance and tools on the Business Link.gov website, the Solutions for Business portfolio of business support products and its National Skills strategy.

Foreign Investment in UK

Dai Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of foreign direct investment into the UK was  (a) in the electricity generation sector and  (b) in Wales in the last 12 months; and how many of the companies making such investment received allocations from the UK Innovation Investment Fund.

Ian Lucas: Table 5.3 of the Office for National Statistics publication MA4 gave the flow of foreign direct investment into the United Kingdom in electricity, gas and water as £12.35 billion in 2007, about 13 per cent. of the total that year. These figures are due to be revised when estimates for 2008 are published on Thursday 4 February.
	The ONS does not subdivide its foreign direct investment statistics between different parts of the UK. The Welsh Assembly Government commissioned an Empirical Investigation of Foreign Direct Investment in Wales from the University of Wales Swansea, and this can be read at:
	http://wales.gov.uk/docs//dfm/research/090701foreign directinvestmenten.pdf
	None of these businesses have received funding from UK Innovation Investment Fund (UKIIF). We expect UKIIF to begin investing in technology based businesses during the first quarter of 2010.

Higher Education: Finance

Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what funding his Department has provided for  (a) teaching,  (b) research and  (c) staff development for (i) Newcastle and (ii) Northumbria universities since 2004-05.

David Lammy: Funding made available to these universities by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Research Councils are as follows:
	
		
			  £ 
			   Teaching grant (HEFCE)  Staff development (HEFCE)  Research grant (HEFCE)  Research Councils 
			  University of Newcastle 
			 2004-05 50,252,943 3,499,150 27,524,280 12,230,000 
			 2005-06 52,005,533 4,484,582 30,671,707 15,067,000 
			 2006-07 60,054,818 (1)- 32,125,761 19,078,000 
			 2007-08 63,689,772 (1)- 32,913,752 22,345,000 
			 2008-09 64,866,781 (1)- 33,981,019 28,159,000 
			  
			  University of Northumbria 
			 2004-05 47,546,785 2,710,285 949,402 240,000 
			 2005-06 49,150,300 3,566,165 1,146,418 164,000 
			 2006-07 56,502,160 (1)- 1,255,044 288,000 
			 2007-08 58,048,517 (1)- 1,394,291 423,000 
			 2008-09 60,695,821 (1)- 1,346,425 644,000 
			 (1) This allocation from 2006-07 onwards is part of HEFCE's teaching grant and is not identified separately.

Insolvency

John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent discussions his Department has had with  (a) the Insolvency Service and  (b) administrators on the obligations to their creditors of successor companies to failed companies under pre-pack administration arrangements.

Ian Lucas: The Insolvency Service is an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and has policy responsibility for insolvency matters. The Insolvency Service carries out the Secretary of State's function with regard to both the direct authorisation of insolvency practitioners and the regulation of the recognised professional bodies that authorise the vast majority of insolvency practitioners. The Department has therefore not had any direct liaison with administrators nor the recognised professional bodies on the issue of pre-packs as this has been undertaken by the Insolvency Service.
	New disclosure requirements aimed at improving the transparency of pre-packaged administrations were introduced on 1 January 2009, in SIP (Statement of Insolvency Practice) 16. The Insolvency Service is examining all information received from insolvency practitioners in relation to disclosures made under SIP 16, and is working closely with the recognised professional bodies to improve insolvency practitioners' compliance with the SIP. A report on the first six months' operation of the SIP was published by the Insolvency Service in July 2009 and may be accessed through:
	http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/insolvencyprofessionand legislation/policychange/sip16-final.pdf

Insolvency

John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department has taken to assess the effects on small business creditors of the implementation of pre-pack administrations, with particular reference to  (a) turnover and  (b) numbers of jobs.

Ian Lucas: The Insolvency Service is an Executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and has policy responsibility for insolvency matters.
	The Insolvency Service has made no specific assessment of the impact of pre-packaged administrations on small business creditors in relation to their turnover or number of jobs. However, it is not the pre-pack transaction that causes the loss to small business creditors, but the insolvency of the company.
	In addition, the Office of Fair Trading has recently launched a market study into the corporate insolvency market. The study will look into the structure of the market and any features in the market which could result in harm, such as higher fees or lower recovery rates for certain groups of creditors.

Post Offices: Bank Services

Peter Luff: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what discussions he has had with  (a) UK banks in which the Government holds shares and  (b) other UK banks on standardising the banking services they offer through the Post Office network; and if he will make a statement.

Pat McFadden: A number of UK banks offer accounts which can be accessed through post offices. We are working with Post Office Ltd. to expand the banking services offered by Post Office Ltd.

UK Trade and Investment

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses in each  (a) constituency,  (b) local authority area and  (c) Government Office region have received services since 1 April 2008.

Ian Lucas: UK Trade  Investment (UKTI) services delivered by the English regions including Passport, English Regions Trade Advisers, MVS and charged services delivered through UKTI's overseas network are publicly available by Government office region on a quarterly basis from UKTI's Performance and Impact Monitoring Survey (PIMS) at:
	www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk/ukti/pims
	Services delivered since 1 April 2008 are captured by PIMS waves 13 onwards.
	For example:
	
		
			  Passport 
			  Firms supported  East midlands  East of England  London  North-east  North-west  South-east  South-west  West midlands  Yorks 
			 PIMS 13 (April to June 2008) 34 54 73 20 48 61 41 49 45 
			 PIMS 14 (July to September 2008) 62 72 56 43 102 72 50 60 46 
			 PIMS 15 (October to December 2008) 36 52 37 57 57 44 51 66 44 
			 PIMS 16 (January to March 2009) 29 46 48 18 54 54 56 40 34 
			 PIMS 17 (April to June 2009) 46 53 42 8 58 61 58 25 35 
		
	
	
		
			  OMIS 
			  Firms supported  East Midlands  East of England  London  North-east  North-west  South-east  South-west  West midlands  Yorks 
			 PIMS 13 (April to June 2008) 70 68 150 61 60 119 64 63 63 
			 PIMS 14 (July to September 2008) 76 69 167 53 65 102 56 70 63 
			 PIMS 15 (October to December 2008) 74 81 188 87 79 145 65 59 59 
			 PIMS 16 (January to March 2009) 77 82 169 68 68 117 61 63 47 
			 PIMS 17 (April to June 2009) 67 79 217 47 82 141 72 72 61 
		
	
	
		
			  MVS 
			  Firms supported  East m idlands  East of England  London  North-east  North-west  South-east  South-west  West midlands  Yorks 
			 PIMS 14 (July to September 2008) 21 18 25 2 7 5 0 7 5 
			 PIMS 15 (October to December 2008) 32 32 40 33 22 61 11 21 17 
			 PIMS 16 (January to March 2009) 84 8 78 8 25 90 53 19 17 
			 PIMS 17(April to June 2009) 53 29 25 10 11 28 29 27 56 
		
	
	Figures for constituency or local authority areas are not currently available.

Video Games: Trade Fairs

Don Foster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much of the funding allocated to UK Trade and Investment's Trade Assistance Programme in 2008-09 was spent on assistance for UK video games businesses to exhibit at overseas trade shows.

Ian Lucas: Through UK Trade and Investment's Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP) £57,000 was spent on assisting UK video games businesses exhibit at overseas exhibitions in financial year 2008-09.